He graduated from the Foreign Trade Department of the Karl Marx University of Economics in 1968 and from the College of Politics of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP) in 1980.

From 1966 he worked for the International Department of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Young Communist League (KISZ) and was subsequently its director.

He worked for the Foreign Affairs Department of the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party from 1975, acting as deputy director from 1983 to 1986.

[1] Kovács was a founder of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) in October 1989, becoming a member of the presidium of the National Board in May 1990.

He was confirmed in this office on 29 March 2003, however he resigned in 2004, when he was appointed European Commissioner.

At the beginning of November 2003 the twenty-five members of the Presidential Committee of Socialist International elected him deputy chairman representing the entire Central and East European Region.

[1] In 2004, Kovács was nominated to serve as the Hungarian member of the European Commission, which was to take office on 1 November 2004.