Dacian Cioloș was appointed as Prime Minister of Romania on 17 November 2015.

Prior to his nomination, he served as European Commissioner responsible for Agriculture and Rural Development in the second Barroso Commission (2010 – 2014), focusing on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. Following his commissioner mandate, he was appointed as special adviser for food security by the current President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker.

He started his professional career in 1997 as trainee within the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Commission, where he worked on preparing the SAPARD pre-accession program (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development). Between 1998 and 1999, he was involved in several rural development projects in Romania, after which he coordinated several Romanian-French cooperation programs at the International Cooperative DezvoltareAgricola – CICDA in partnership with the National Association Agricultural Development – ANDA. In 2002, he started working at the European Commission Delegation in Romania, where he was dealing with the implementation of SAPARD. Three years later, he joined the Ministry of Agriculture, where he became personal adviser to the minister and spokesman for Romania in the Special Committee on Agriculture of the EU Council. In 2007, he was appointed Undersecretary of State for European Affairs in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tariceanu Government on October 11, 2007.

Cioloș graduated in Horticultural Engineering from the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca (1994). He holds a Diploma of Advanced Studies on rural production and development systems from École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Rennes (1996) and a Diploma of Advanced Studies on Agricultural, agri-food and Rural Development Economics from École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique – University of Montpellier 1 (1997).

In 2005, he followed several courses on agriculture and commerce, organized by the World Bank Institute and the University of Rome III.

He is a member of the independent think tank on European agriculture and rural development “Groupe de Bruges”, as well as a founding member of the Professional Association “Agroecologia”.

He speaks fluent French and English.