Political State Secretary
What position did Mátyás Eörsi take between Dec 2003 and Jan 2007?
Mátyás Eörsi Mátyás Eörsi ( born 24 November 1954 ) is a Hungarian politician who was the leader of the liberal Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ( ALDE-PACE ) Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ( PACE ) . He became a member of the PACE in 1994 . On 6 March 2009 the Hungarian government nominated Eörsi to Secretary General of the Council of Europe . Eörsi studied law in Budapest and was elected to parliament in 1990 . He was an MP until 2010 . In 1997 he was appointed Political State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a period of almost two years . In parliament , he served as Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee , Chairperson of the European Affairs Committee , and he was leader of the Parliamentary Group of the party , SZDSZ as well . Personal background and professional life . Eörsi was born in Budapest . His grandmother , Ernőné Hajdu Fanni , Auer was a Social democrat member of parliament in 1945-1948 . She was arrested and tortured by the Ferenc Szálasi regime in the final months of the war . As a committed democrat , she was one of the 350,000 people purged by the Rákosi regime from 1946 onwards . She was jailed and tortured again . Oddly , the woman who tortured her was the same during both regimes . His father , Gyula Eörsi was a law professor , an author of several books and a major contributor to UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods . His mother , Marianna Eörsi was a teacher of Hungarian literature and grammar at high schools . He is a nephew of the Hungarian author and former dissident István Eörsi . Education . Mátyás Eörsi was educated at the Kossuth Zsuzsa High School in Budapest . He was admitted to the Law Faculty of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest , where he graduated in 1979 . Employment . Eörsis started his career as in house legal counsel to a Hungarian state company KOMPLEX Export-Import in international trading . In 1987 he established his own law firm , Eörsi & Partners which he ran as managing partner until he became an MP . The firm , one of the first private law firms in Hungary , was among others specialized in commercial law and soon became one of the leading Budapest law firms . Although Mátyás Eörsi was a full-time politician now , he is still active as an arbitrator at the Arbitration Court attached to the Hungarian Chamber of Industry and Trade . Since he did not contest the national election in 2010 , Eörsi was working for NDI in Jordan and in Libya , for the Democracy Reporting International in Berlin , for the Parliamentary Forum for Democracy in Vilnius . From 2015 until 2017 Eörsi was the senior advisor to the Secretary General and the Head of Admin , Finances and HR at the Community of Democracies in Warsaw . Eörsi was Head of the Election Observation Missions of OSCE/ODIHR in 2017 in the Czech Republic and in 2019 in the Republic of Moldova . Political biography . Founding member of SZDSZ ( The Hungarian Liberal Party ) in 1989 . He was elected as MP to the Hungarian National Assembly in 1990 . Chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee ( 1994-1997 ) Member , Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ( 1994-1997,1998-2010 ) State Secretary , Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( 1997-1998 ) Vice-president , Liberal International ( 2001-2006 ) Leader , ALDE Group Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe ( 2002-2009 ) Bureau Member , ELDR Party ( 2002-2009 ) Chairperson , European Affairs Committee ( 2004-2010 ) Floor leader of SZDSZ parliamentary group ( 2007-2008 ) He joined Democratic Coalition in January 2012 . Member of National Council – Democratic Coalition Party , Hungary ( 2012- ) Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Democratic Coalition Party ( 2016- ) Foreign policy , political state secretary . In 1994 Mátyás Eörsi became President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Hungarian Parliament and in 1997 he was appointed Political State Secretary ( First Deputy Foreign Minister ) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . After Hungarys entry into the European Union ( 2004 ) , Eörsi became the President of the Committee for European Affairs , a position he held for two consecutive term , until 2010 , when he was not contesting the national elections . International work , Council of Europe . Late 2009/early 2010 Eörsi lead the PACE observers-mission during the 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections . In 1997 Mr . Eörsi was elected as vice-president at Liberal International , and he also served in the Bureau of ELDR Party between 2002 and 2009 . Eörsi is a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly , an organisation which advocates for democratic reformation of the United Nations . Personal life . His wife , Katalin Jemnitz is a biologist at the Chemical Research Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences . They have a daughter , Júlia and two sons , Márton and Péter . External links . - Profile of Mátyás Eörsi at the website of the PACE