Romania's former interior minister Gabriel Oprea is close to losing his doctor degree as the National Council for Attesting University Titles, Diplomas, and Certificates (CNATDCU) has determined that he had plagiarized part of the doctoral thesis presented in 2000 at the Faculty of Law within the University of Bucharest.

Following these findings, CNATDCU members voted for the recommendation to withdraw Gabriel Oprea’s doctor title.

The Council will send their decision to go to the education minister. Oprea has 14 days to challenge it.

In a Facebook post, the former interior minister announced that he would challenge CNATDCU’s decision and, in case nothing changes after that, he would ask justice to “make some light” in this case.

“In 2000, I wrote a doctoral thesis that met all academic and legal rules in force at that time. Neither my doctoral adviser and the committee that decided to award the title, nor the University of Bucharest had any objections to that work,” Oprea wrote on Facebook.

“Today, more than 15 years since I presented my doctoral thesis, CNATDCU says that I plagiarized the doctorate paper. I don’t know if those who took this decision checked carefully the rules that were in place 15 years ago. Also, I don’t know if the doctoral paper was evaluated by the current rules and standards (different from those in 2000) or by the standards of that time, which I respected. What I know is that last year, the National Ethics Council officially said that the 'suspicions of plagiarism are not confirmed' in my case.”

The most famous case of plagiarism in Romania is that of former Prime Minister Victor Ponta who was also accused of plagiarizing much of his doctoral thesis. The CNATDCU found that the plagiarism allegations were justified and asked the education minister to withdraw Ponta's doctor degree. Ponta challenged CNATDCU's decision, but the Council rejected his appeal last week.

Several other known politicians, including members of the current Government, have been accused of plagiarizing their doctorate theses. The CNATDCU will also analyze their cases.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com