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
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
The Assembly is made up of ...
(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
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe () is elected by the Parliamentary Assembly from a shortlist proposed by the Committee of Ministers for a term of five years.
The secretary general is entrusted with the responsibility of meetin ...
.
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
Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...
member of parliament in 1945-1948. She was arrested and tortured by the
Ferenc Szálasi
Ferenc Szálasi (; 6 January 1897 – 12 March 1946) was a Hungarian military officer, politician, Nazi sympathizer and founder of the far-right Arrow Cross Party who List of prime ministers of Hungary, headed the government of Hungary duri ...
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
Eötvös Loránd University (, ELTE, also known as ''University of Budapest'') is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in ...
in Budapest, where he graduated in 1979.
Employment
Eörsi's 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
Commercial law (or business law), which is also known by other names such as mercantile law or trade law depending on jurisdiction; is the body of law that applies to the rights, relations, and conduct of Legal person, persons and organizations ...
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.
Currently he works for Vice-President Klára Dobrev in the European Parliament as senior political advisor.
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- )
Senior Political Advisor to Klára DOBREV, Vice-President in the European Parliament.
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 Hungary's entry into 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 ...
(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
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( , MTA) is Hungary’s foremost and most prestigious learned society. Its headquarters are located along the banks of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. The Academy's primar ...
. They have a daughter, Júlia and two sons, Márton and Péter.
References
External links
Profile of Mátyás Eörsi at the website of the PACE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eorsi, Matyas
Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1990–1994)
Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1994–1998)
Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (1998–2002)
Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2002–2006)
Members of the National Assembly of Hungary (2006–2010)
Alliance of Free Democrats politicians
Democratic Coalition (Hungary) politicians
Living people
Hungarian Jews
1954 births