Péter Balázs (, born 5 December 1941) is a Hungarian politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010. In addition to his native Hungarian, he speaks English, French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. He graduated from Budapest School of Economics in 1963 and worked in the Hungarian government until 1 May 2004, when his country joined the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and was appointed to the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

with

Michel Barnier Michel Jean Barnier (; born 9 January 1951) is a French politician who was Prime Minister of France from September to December 2024. A member of a series of Gaullist parties ( UDR, RPR, UMP, LR), Barnier has served in several French cabinet p ...

under

Romano Prodi Romano Prodi (; born 9 August 1939) is an Italian politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004 and twice as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1996 to 1998, and again from 2006 to 2008. Prodi is considered the fo ...

. He became the Hungarian European Commissioner holding the Regional Policy portfolio until the end of the

Prodi Commission The Prodi Commission was the European Commission in office between 1999 and 2004. The administration was led by former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. History The commission took office on 16 September 1999 following the scandal and subs ...

on 21 November 2004. He was succeeded by László Kovács as the Hungarian Commissioner and

Danuta Hübner Danuta Maria Hübner (, or ; born 8 April 1948) is a Polish politician, diplomat, and economist and Member of the European Parliament. She was European Commissioner for Regional Policy from 22 November 2004 until 4 July 2009, when she resigned t ...

as Commissioner for regional policy. Balázs became a professor at the International Relations and European Studies Department of the

Central European University Central European University (CEU; , ) is a private research university in Vienna. The university offers graduate and undergraduate programs in the social sciences and humanities, which are accredited in Austria and the United States. The univ ...

(CEU), Budapest. In 2005, he established a new

research center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentric ...

for

EU Enlargement The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria ...

Studies at the CEU. Balázs became the Hungarian

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

in April 2009, serving until May 2010. Balázs, when addressing the topic of Hungary-Slovakia relations compared the creation of the language law of Slovakia to the politics of the Ceauşescu regime on the use of language. He was succeeded by

János Martonyi János Martonyi (born in Kolozsvár, Hungary (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania), 5 April 1944) is a Hungarian politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1998 to 2002 and from 2010 to 2014. He is a member of the Fidesz – Hungarian ...

. Balázs is a member of the advisory board of the Prague European Summit.

External links

Website on ec.europa.euInterview with Euractiv.com

References

1941 births Living people People from Kecskemét Hungarian European commissioners Ministers of foreign affairs of Hungary Academic staff of Central European University Ambassadors of Hungary to Germany Corvinus University of Budapest alumni Members of the Bajnai Government {{EU-org-bio-stub