Daciana Octavia Sârbu (born 15 January 1977) is a Romanian politician, legal counsellor, and Member of the European Parliament. Political career Affiliated with the Social Democratic Party (PSD), part of the Party of European Socialists, she became a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Argeș County following the 2004 elections, and became an MEP on 1 January 2007, with the accession of Romania to the European Union. Born in Arad, Sârbu graduated from Law School at the West University of Timișoara, where she was awarded a Master's Degree in Commercial law. She also graduated from the National College of Defense in 2002, and later worked for a law practice. In 1996, Sârbu joined the PSD (known as PDSR at the time), and in 2001 became an Adviser for the Controlling Body of the Romanian Premiership in the Năstase cabinet. She withdrew from this office in 2003, and became a State Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Research, later serving as Head of the National Authority for the Youth. In her party, she became one of the leaders of the youth and women's wings, taking part in the International Union of Socialist Youth structures, and attending its Congress of 2004. In July 2018, she announced that she decided to leave PSD, continuing her mandate in the European Parliament as an independent MEP until February 2019 and then as a PRO Romania member, within the S&D Group. Personal life Daciana Sârbu is the daughter of Ilie Sârbu, a PSD member who served as Minister of Agriculture in the Adrian Năstase cabinet and held the same position in the Emil Boc cabinet; he was also President of the Senate in 2008. In October 2006, in China, she quietly wed the former Prime Minister of Romania, Victor Ponta. The couple's relationship had become serious in 2004, after Ponta's son was born. They had a daughter in March 2008 and married in a Romanian Orthodox ceremony in Bucharest's Grădina Icoanei Church that June. In the European Parliament As an MEP, Daciana Sarbu sits on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), whilst also being a member of the Delegation for relations with the United States, a substitute member on the Committee on Fisheries (PECH), Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) and Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China (D-CN). At the start of the 2014 legislature, she