Ioan Mircea Paşcu

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Ioan Mircea Paşcu (born 17 February 1949, Satu Mare) is a Romanian Socialist politician who entered the European Parliament in January 2007 when Romania joined the EU. Paşcu is one of the Vice-Chairs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is also a substitute Member of Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the United States.[1]

Paşcu studied Political Science and has held various administrative and researcher positions in several higher education institutions. He was the Vice-President of the National Salvation Front from 1990 to 1992, of the Social Democratic Party from 1997 to 2006, and was the Minister for Defence from 2000 to 2004. He was also a member of the editorial committee of the International Politics Journal until 2003, and is still a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (since 1993), the consultative committee of the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, Geneva (since 2002), and the academic advisory board to the NATO College, Rome (since 2006). He wrote the book 'Zone Denuclearizate' ('Nuclear Weapon-Free Zones') in 1985, which won him the Nicolae Titulescu Academy Award for the same year, and 'Armele şi Politica' ('Weapons and Politics') in 1989.[2]


Background

Paşcu’s Romanian political background includes stints as State Secretary at the Ministry of Defence from 1993-1996 and Minister for Defence from 2000-2004. Halfway through his tenure as Defence Minster, Paşcu apologised for making “threatening remarks” to journalists who had reprinted a Wall Street Journal article claiming NATO was suspicious of the country's secret police. His apology related to a message sent by his Ministry warning journalists that “life is short, and your health has too high a price to be endangered by debating highly emotional subjects.”[3][4]

It was also during his tenure as Minster of Defence that a report by Dick Marty, a Swiss politician who acted as a Rapporteur for the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights at the Council of Europe, examined the allegations of secret, so-called rendition flights by the CIA. Marty’s inquiry concluded that secret CIA flights “did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania".[5] According to Marty, Paşcu was one of the “individual office-holders who knew about, authorised and stand accountable for Romania’s role in the CIA’s operation of “out-oftheatre” secret detention facilities on Romanian territory, from 2003 to 2005.”


Register of Interests

  • Holds consultancy contract with SKE Group, Karlstadt, Mannheim - Firm specialised in working for American military


Conflicts of Interest

Paşcu vehemently denies that either he or Romania was involved or knew about the flights. “I have pronounced myself publicly many times, rejecting all allegations, including Dick Marty's, who was incapable of proving anything when challenged. How could one know anything about something which did not happen?” he says. He accuses Marty of “violating his rights.”[6] Paşcu has also criticised requests by the European Union for Romania and Poland to investigate the CIA flights issue further as “unwelcome”.[7][8]

Marty’s report alleges that the CIA flights in Romania landed at Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase near the Black Sea. It backs up a report by Human Rights Watch which also alleges the airport was used as a “secret detention location.”[9] Paşcu has admitted that parts of this airfield had been off limits to Romanian authorities and the country’s intelligence agencies had no jurisdiction there. He has also conceded that planes carrying US prisoners may have made stopovers in Romania, although he argues that this is not evidence of a secret CIA prison camp.[10][11]

The Mihail Kogalniceanu base was also used by some 7,000 US troops heading for Iraq in 2003. The following year Paşcu toured the base with US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld and pitched the idea to him to station a contingent of US troops at the airfield.[12][13] Paşcu was quoted at the time as saying the visit showed how close relations were with the United States and also it was “good for future prospects”.[14]

And so it has proved to be true. In December 2006, it was announced that the US would spend US$34 million to upgrade the Mihail Kogalniceanu base, with up to 1,500 American troops expected to begin training there.[15]

In April, the SKE Group, which was established to serve the US Military in Europe,[16] was awarded one of the contracts, worth $5.5 million, to build “Temporary Forward Operating Facilities” at the airbase. According to the Group: “This project is vital to the on-going defense partnership between Romania and the United States.”[17]

Paşcu now lists in his declaration of interests as having a consultancy contract to SKE, which started on the 1st December 2006, one month before he became an MEP. So Paşcu is the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs as well as involved with the EU’s relations with the US through the Delegation for Relations with the United States.[18] Yet at the same time, he has a consulting contract with a firm that specialises in working for the American military. Plus this is a company which has just finished a contract working in Romania for the Americans at the controversial airbase.

Paşcu denies any wrongdoing: “There is no connection whatsoever between the activity of both the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the EU-US Parliamentary Delegation and that of SKE”, he argues. “I did not attend any of the activities of the EU-US Parliamentary Delegation and all my pronouncements in [the Committee] are on record and, therefore, public. In sum, there is no conflict of interest.”[19]


Resources


Notes and References

  1. ↑ European Parliament website - MEP Directory: Ioan Mircea Paşcu, accessed 12 November 2008.
  2. ↑ European Parliament website - MEP Directory: Ioan Mircea Paşcu, accessed 12 November 2008.
  3. ↑ BBC Monitoring Europe, “Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring,” 16 May 2002, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  4. ↑ BBC Monitoring International Reports, “Romanian Defence Minister Sorry Joke About Media Taken Not As Intended,” 16 May 2002, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  5. ↑ Carole Landry, “CIA Ran Secret Terror Prisons In Poland, Romania, Report Claims”, Agence France Presse, 08 June 2007, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  6. ↑ Ioan Mircea Paşcu, E-mail to Andy Rowell, June 2008, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  7. ↑ Renata Goldirova, “MEPs Grill CIA Report Author Over His Accusations,” 17 July 2007, accessed 12 November 2008.
  8. ↑ BBC Monitoring International Reports, "Romanian MEP Condemns Demand for Another Probe into CIA 'Secret Prisons'", 28 September 2007, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  9. ↑ Human Rights Watch, “Human Rights Watch Statement on U.S. Secret Detention Facilities in Europe”, 07 November 2005, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  10. ↑ Alison Mutler, “Former Romanian Minister Says Parts of Base Used by US Troops Off-Limits to Romanians,” Associated Press, 21 November 2005, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  11. ↑ William J. Kole, AP Enterprise: Romanian Base Under Scrutiny Amid Allegations Of Secret CIA Terror Prisons, Associated Press, 24 November 2005, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  12. ↑ Chattanooga Times, Free Press, "Romania Pitches for US Air Base", 12 October 2004, pA4, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  13. ↑ Facts on File - World News Digest, “Romania; Rumsfeld Tours Potential U.S. Base”, 18 November 2004, p915D2, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  14. ↑ Agence France Presse, “Rumsfeld Tours Black Sea Base With Eye To Possible Future US Presence”, 11 October 2004, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
  15. ↑ Associated Press, “US Military to Take Over Romanian Air Base Near Black Sea”, 08 December 2006, accessed 12 November 2008.
  16. ↑ SKE Group website, accessed 12 November 2008.
  17. ↑ SKE Group website, SKE News, accessed 12 November 2008.
  18. ↑ Ioan Mircea Paşcu, Declaration of Member’s Financial Interests, 2007, accessed 12 November 2008.
  19. ↑ Ioan Mircea Paşcu, E-mail to Andy Rowell, June 2008, cited in Too Close for Comfort? by Andy Rowell, Spinwatch, July 2008.
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