Renate Weber

Renate Weber (born 3 August 1955 in Botoșani, Botoșani County, Romania) is a Romanian lawyer and human rights activist who, in November 2007, was elected as Member of the European Parliament.

She is the first Romanian appointed as Chief of an EU Election Observation Mission.

Renate Weber graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest, in 1979 and became a lawyer at the Bucharest Bar.

In the 1990s, Weber has become one of the strongest voices of the Romanian civil society, being involved in a number of national and international non-profit organization, such as the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (Vienna), where she was Vice-chair (1994–1996), or the Association for the Protection of Human Rights in Romania – Helsinki Committee (APADOR-CH), where she was Co-chair (1994–1999).

She lectured in international human rights law, constitutional law, minority rights and women's rights, at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies, Faculty of Political Sciences (1997–2003).

Weber was the longest-serving Chairwoman of the National Council at the Foundation for an Open Society – Romania (1998–2005, 2006–2007).

In 2000, she was appointed as Ad hoc judge at the European Court of Human Rights in (Strasbourg).

She also held classes on the protection of human rights in the context of international relations, at University of Bucharest, Faculty of History (2003–2004).

Between 2004–2005 she was Advisor on constitutional and legislative matters to then President of Romania, Traian Băsescu.

Between 2004–2005, Weber was appointed as Advisor on constitutional and legislative matters to the President of Romania.

In 2007, she decided to enter politics and became a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL).

Renate Weber became a member of the European Parliament in November 2007.

She is a full member of the LIBE Committee and a substitute member of the AFET Committee.

She was also a member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of the Andean Community.

In this capacity, she led – in the autumn of 2008 – the EP Electoral Observation Mission in Ecuador.

Subsequently, she was appointed by the European Commission as Chief of the EU Election Observation Mission for the 25 January 2009 Constitutional Referendum in Bolivia and she was also Chief Observer for the EU EOM deployed for the presidential and legislative elections that took place in Bolivia on 6 December 2009.

In May 2010, Renate Weber was invited by the European Commission to lead the EU EOM deployed for the May–September 2010 electoral cycle in Burundi, Africa.

She previously served as the Romanian Ombudsman as well from June 2019 until mid June 2021.

In June 2019, Weber was appointed as People's Advocate of Romania by the Parliament of Romania.

As a consequence, in accordance with law, she had to resign from her European Parliament membership.

She was ousted by Parliament in mid June 2021.

Her dismissal was declared unconstitutional by the Romanian Constitutional Court on June 29, and she was reinstated in her position on July 6, 2021.

Weber has over 50 published studies and articles on human rights, the rights of national minorities, constitutional law, the European Convention on Human Rights and fighting discrimination.

Here are several examples:

Other articles/papers on the Romanian legal system, the implementation of international human rights/minority rights legislation by the Romanian Courts and the human rights/minority rights situation in Romania.