Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, the head of Romania’s Foreign Intelligence Office (SIE), has resigned from this position, Presidency spokesperson Mădălina Dobrovolschi announced on Monday.

President Klaus Iohannis said that Ungureanu invoked personal reasons for his resignation. He added that he would name a new director at SIE after the parliamentary elections in December.

SIE deputy director Silviu Predoiu will take over as interim director. Predoiu has been working within SIE since 1990.

Mihai Razvan Ungureanu was appointed head of SIE in late-June last year, after being nominated by President Klaus Iohannis. He previously held this position between December 2007 and February 2012.

He was also Prime Minister for about two months in early-2012, and was foreign affairs minister between 2004 and 2007. Before that, he was state secretary within the Foreign Affairs Ministry, from 1998 to 2001.

In late-April this year, the chief prosecutor of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) attacked SIE by saying that DNA hadn’t received any information on possible crimes from the foreign intelligence service SIE in the past three years.

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