Norica Nicolai  Norica Nicolai (born Norica Clinci; January 27, 1958) is a Romanian lawyer and politician. An independent who previously belonged to the National Liberal Party (PNL) and before that the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNŢ-CD), she was a member of the Romanian Senate for Cluj County from 2000 to 2008, and a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2019. She was at the centre of a conflict between Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu and President Traian Băsescu in early 2008, with the latter rejecting, ultimately successfully, the former's nomination of Nicolai to be Justice Minister. She is married and has one child. She was born in Sinaia, and, following secondary studies at the town's George Enescu High School, in 1983 she graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest. From 1983 to 1991, she was a prosecutor at the Olteniţa courthouse, and from 1991 to 1993 was legal adviser to a rural trucking company in Călăraşi. She worked as a lawyer in the same city from 1991 to 1997. From 1998 to 2001, Nicolai was president of the Economic and Social Council, a public institution that facilitates dialogue between employers, unions and the government; and was a secretary of state at the Labour Ministry from 1997 to 2000. She belonged to the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party (PNŢ-CD) from 1997 until August 2000, when it expelled her for signing a declaration in support of then-PNL member Theodor Stolojan; the PNŢ-CD supported Mugur Isărescu in the upcoming presidential election. In autumn 2000, by then a PNL member, she was elected to the Senate, being re-elected in 2004. In 2006, she was the subject of controversy when cameras caught her niece in her Senate chair with a voting card in her hand, although Nicolai stated her niece did not actually cast a vote. The following year, she became a vice president both of her party and of the Senate; she was the first woman to preside over a session of that chamber. While in the Senate, she served on the defence, anti-corruption, equal opportunity, and judiciary committees, including as president of the last from March 2008. During Tăriceanu's time in office from 2004, her name was floated for the Justice, Interior and Defence portfolios, but she was only offered the Labour Ministry when his second cabinet was formed, a nomination she declined.