President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday approved the nomination of Sevil Shhaileh for the post of Regional Development minister.

Shhaileh, 50, an economist by profession has been a state secretary in the Ministry of Regional Development since 2012, after previously working in local administration. She belongs to Romania’s small ethnic Turkish minority and is the first Muslim woman to become a government minister.

The Ministry of Regional Development is one of the biggest portfolios in Romania’s government. The minister coordinates all the local authorities in Romania and handles some of the largest projects financed with EU funds. The ministry has an estimated budget of 1.12 billion euro, 4 per cent of the state’s total expenditures this year.

Sevil Shhaileh was a close collaborator to former minister, Liviu Dragnea, who last week resigned after being given a one-year suspended prison sentence for electoral fraud.

Dragnea was accused of using his influence to obtain electoral advantages for his party during a 2012 referendum to impeach former president Traian Basescu. The referendum failed in the end due to a low turnout.