Maria Grapini

Early life and education Grapini was born on 7 November 1954 in Berești, Galați County. She graduated from the Berești Theoretical High School in 1973 and the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași in 1978.

Career Grapini held various positions at the Garofița Textile Enterprise in Timișoara until 1989. Between 1995 and 2012, she was the president of the Council of Administration and general manager of . She also served as the president of the Council of Administration of SC Pasmatex Conf International SA from 1998 to 2012.

Political activity Between 2006 and 2015, Grapini was the vice president of the Conservative Party (PC). A month later, Grapini joined the Humanist Power Party.

In 2012, Grapini was elected as the deputy of the 37th constituency at Timiș County. On 19 December 2012, she was appointed as the Minister for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Business and Tourism Environment in the Second Ponta cabinet.

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–present In January 2014, the PC announced Grapini's resignation from the position due to her candidacy in the 2014 European Parliament election. She later resigned from Parliament for the same reason.

In the election, the PC ran candidates on common lists with the PSD and UNPR; Grapini was the fifth candidate. The alliance won with 37.6% of the votes, and Grapini was elected.

Grapini was re-elected at the 2019 European Parliament election in Romania. Although not officially registered with the party, Grapini was the sixth candidate on the PSD list.

In addition to her committee assignments, Grapini is part of the European Parliament Intergroup on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Published works Grapini has published four books. The first was published in 2011 and contains interviews that Grapini had over time at Radio Timișoara. In 2012, she published a novel, Viața, între scrieri și trans-scrieri, which contained a critical presentation signed by . In an investigation published by Recorder, journalist Mihai Voinea showed that the novel contained several fragments copied from Wikipedia.

In August 2018, Grapini appealed to the National Council for Combating Discrimination due to a Facebook message. In the message, she offended the Romanian diaspora at an anti-government rally in the Victory Square, saying they had to "pay dumb taxes for the USR". Later, Grapini said she disagreed with the statement and explained why she distributed the message:

Recognition In 2019, Grapini was the recipient of the Internal Market & Consumer Protection Award at the annual MEP Awards of The Parliament Magazine.