Péter Balázs

Prof. Balázs graduated in Budapest at the Faculty of Economics of the “Karl Marx” University (later: Budapest School of Economics, today Corvinus University). He got his PhD degree and habilitated at the same University. He is a ScD of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. In parallel with his government and diplomatic career he has been teaching and doing research. He was nominated Professor of the Corvinus University in 2000 and joined the CEU as a full time Professor in 2005. He is regularly teaching at various home and foreign universities, lecturing in English, French, German and Hungarian.

After the systemic change in 1990 Prof. Balázs joined the Government of Hungary several times. He was a State Secretary for Industry and Trade (1992-1993) and a State Secretary for European Integration (2002-2003). He was Ambassador of Hungary in Denmark (1994-1996), Germany (1997-2000) and to the EU in Brussels (2003-2004). He was also the Government Representative of Hungary in the European Convention drafting the Constitutional Treaty which became later, after several modifications, the Lisbon Treaty. In 2004 he was nominated the first Hungarian Member of the European Commission responsible for regional policy. In 2009-2010 he was Foreign Minister of Hungary.

Research activities of Prof. Balázs are centered on the foreign policy of the EU and problems of the late modernization and European integration of the Eastern part of the continent. He is also analyzing the questions of European governance including the future of European institutions. At the CEU he is teaching EU Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy (fall semester) and European Governance (winter semester). In 2005 he established a research center at the CEU for EU Enlargement Studies (CENS). Prof. Balázs published several books, chapters in books and articles.