[ad_1]
When the “forumista” Drulă hired the Russian PSD minister on the subject of projects, he switched from pen to MasterPlan. Rus: „Let’s be serious, friend, this country does not live on European funds from Romania “
In the fall of 2014, when the Social Democrat Ioan Rus headed the ministry, a public debate was organized in Transport on the subject of the General Transport Master Plan, “Transport Bible” in the relationship between Romania and the European Commission.
Rus presented from the platform of the conference room of the Ministry of Transport a file of the Master Plan with all kinds of modified or improvised projects, the most flagrant case being the Sibiu-Pitești highway, deposed from the corral as a fast track, after Dan Danova It had even tried to completely remove the Sibiu-Pitești project from the road map, to the detriment of the Comarnic-Brașov variant carried out in a public-private partnership regime, an electoral bet of the then Prime Minister Ponta.
At one point, someone gets up from the room and, without a microphone, yells at the Russian minister to drop that masquerade and really allow a debate on the projects of the Master Plan. The one who had taken the floor so abruptly and totally without protocol was simply Cătălin Drulă, to many in the room a stranger. To the few transport authorities of the “presidium”, Drula was known to be a thorn in the side.
Photo Capture: Pro TV News
Drula had asked, among other things, that the projects presented put more emphasis on the use of European funds, since the budget money is not much. Ioan Rus mockingly replied: “Let’s be serious, my friend, this country has not lived on European funds since Romania. We are not exclusively in the hands of European funds. We will live on our money. ”
Founder of the Pro Infrastructure Association, advisor to Prime Minister Cioloș on infrastructure and RSU deputy from Timiș
For more than a year until then, Cătălin Drulă, a software engineer at the base, had given voice to the community of forums passionate about infrastructure that had coagulated on the peundemerg.ro platform.
During the mandate with a catastrophic balance of Dan Șova in Transporturi, Drulă and the forum community in the peundemerg.ro forum were the only voice of civil society that turned him into a real and credible opposition and defended taking positions on figures. and with arguments much of the damaging changes that Sova was promoting in public discourse through various places in the press.
The Pitesti case – Sibiu v. Comarnic – Brașov is just one example, the protest “We want the Sibiu – Pitești highway” organized by the Foroistas is at that time emblematic of the gulf created between the arrogance of transport and the young civil society in the field of infrastructure.
A few months after that heated debate in the Ministry of Transport, given that the authorities did not present themselves publicly and what strategy they have to carry out the projects in the Master Plan, Cătălin Drulă presented, from the same community, a simple and coherent strategy for how the essential road projects for Romania could be implemented.
In May 2015, Drulă and several other members of the peundemerg.ro community founded the Pro Infrastructure Association (API), the first civil society association strictly focused on monitoring infrastructure projects and which has since become the most visible and credible voice on the field. .
“I wondered why we don’t have roads and roads like in the West and then, question after question, I established a discussion forum with other friends, www.peundemerg.ro. This year we became an NGO, ”Drula said at the time.
Following the fall of the Ponta government, in November 2015, Drula was one of 20 civil society representatives summoned to Cotroceni to speak with President Klaus Iohannis. In those days, when there was much discussion about a government of technocrats and apolitical people, Drula appeared on several unofficial lists as a possible candidate for the post of Minister of Transport.
Claimed in DNA by Highway Company employees for too much transparency
For about ten months as an advisor to Prime Minister Cioloș, Drulă often disagreed with the management of the Highways Company and the Transport Ministers who were lost in the implementation of infrastructure projects.
Another episode from that period is worth mentioning: Drula was reported to the DNA by some Road Company employees for too much … transparency. Drula communicated on Facebook what is the status of the projects in Bucharest Beltway.
In October 2016, Drulă resigned as an adviser to Prime Minister Cioloș and announced that he would join USR and run for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. Drula entered Parliament and was a member of the Transportation Committee and chair of the Information and Communications Technology Committee.
Proposed by Barna for the post of European Commissioner: ‘He spent thousands of hours studying highway projects, comparing, writing analysis, organizing public campaigns for the efficient management of public money for road infrastructure.“
In September 2019, when Romania finalized its proposal for the position of European Commissioner, Dan Barna nominated Cătălin Drulă for the position of European Commissioner for Transport.
“Before being a politician, before being a user, before being elected to the National Parliament, Cătălin was a pro-infrastructure activist. He spent thousands of hours studying road projects, comparing, writing analysis, organizing public campaigns for efficient management of the public money for road infrastructure. He drew attention when projects dragged on, had the courage to recognize when things were going well, insisted on the integration of Romania into the EU and from this point of view (just look at a map of European roads which includes Romania and you will understand that they use the word “integration”!). He is consistent, honest and with a fantastic workforce. I know because he is one of the artisans of several projects that many Romanians said “Yes” to. I list here because I am not promoting a USR or PLUS member, but simply a man who takes seriously every project he commits to participate in, ”Barna said at the time.
—
Bachelor of IT from University of Toronto
Basically, Cătălin Drulă (39 years old) is a software engineer who earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science at the University of Toronto, Canada between 1999 and 2002, based on a scholarship after being an Olympian in computer science, graduated from Tudor College of Computing. Vianu from Bucharest.
Between 2004 and 2005, Drula did a research internship for her Master’s thesis at the Institut National Polytechnique in Grenoble, in an exchange program with the University of Toronto, as ClubFeroviar.ro writes. He then obtained a master’s degree in computer science from the same university in Toronto.
According to his latest fortune statement, Drulă does not own any buildings, only urban land in Mogoșoaia, Ilfov county, with an area of 1490 square meters.
Drulă has owned a BMW car since 2012, several sums of money in bank accounts and investment funds, as well as shares bought from various companies. In the last year, he obtained dividends of 1,250 lei from listed companies.
Before entering the area of administration and politics, Drula worked privately and, as he says, worked on the development of a platform that allows the communication of blood necessary for transfusion by mobile phone and its delivery by drones at distances of up to 70 km, a system that became operational in Rwanda.
Drula, who states in her CV that she is fluent in English, conversational French and a beginner level of German, remains a member of the community of infrastructure enthusiasts on the peundemerg.ro forum, a place where she frequently posts and participates in discussions. with those who are there.
See here Cătălin Drulă’s CV.
In his parliamentary activity in the first legislature (2016-2020), Drula had 205 speeches in plenary and 27 speeches in the Permanent Office. From the spring of 2020, Drula became the leader of the USR deputies.
Drula had 79 legislative proposals, of which 13 were enacted as laws. He had a total of 93 interpellations and questions addressed to ministers or other authorities.
