In addition, his remit also included the effective functioning of the EU's extensive interpretation, translation and publication services in the 23 official languages.

Leonard Orban is married and has a daughter, and his personal interests range across foreign policy, classical music, reading, and cinema.

[1] Between 1986 and 1993, he worked as engineer for Tractor Manufacturing Company Miercurea Ciuc (1986–1989, Romanian: Întreprinderea de Tractoare Miercurea Ciuc), Enterprise for Special Industrial Constructions Bucharest (1989–1990, Romanian: Întreprinderea de Antrepriza Construcţii Speciale Industriale şi Montaj (I.A.C.S.I.M.)

In 1995, the Association Agreement between the EU and Romania came into force and Orban also dealt with the Secretariat of the Joint Parliamentary Committee EU-Romania.

[11] The content of educational systems is the responsibility of individual member states and the European Union has very limited influence in this area.

Though regional and minority languages can benefit from European Union programmes, protection of linguistic rights is a matter for the member states.

[16] Compared to former enlargements of the European Union, the Accession Treaty for Bulgaria and Romania, for the first time, contains an explicit acknowledgement of the Parliament's role and constitutes the formal legal basis for the new Commissioners' appointment procedure.

[17] On 30 October 2006, in agreement with the President of the commission, Barroso, the Romanian government nominated Leonard Orban as Commissioner designate for Romania.

The portfolio was criticized for being too "light" for such a high-rank official, that there would be an overlap of responsibilities with other Commissioners and the good functioning of the commission would be endangered.

The portfolio was considered insubstantial for a Commissioner due to the limited jurisdiction of the EU in affecting language policy and the more administrative (rather than political character) of the post.

He stated that Ján Figeľ, the Commissioner for Education, Training and Culture, "will remain responsible for the management of actions to directly promote the inter-cultural dialogue".

[24][27] On December 12, 2006, Orban received the formal approval of the European Parliament in Strasbourg with 595 votes in favour, 16 against and 29 abstentions.

[28][29] The Socialist Group voted for Orban, laying the blame for the portfolio's mandate on the President of the Commission rather than the Commissioner designate.

[30] Orban held the position of European Commissioner until 31 October 2009, when the remaining term of office for the Barroso Commission ends.

He underlined that, "our efforts to support multilingualism are not limited to EU languages; we are also encouraging training in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Turkish and Russian.

"[12] Orban claims that respect for linguistic diversity and the fight against discrimination on the basis of language are cornerstones for a social Europe; he states that, "Europe's linguistic and cultural diversity is a source of richness which also needs to be nurtured and promoted," which presumably includes all languages, national, regional, minority and migrant.

"[31] Orban's remit included the development of the European Indicator of Language Competence, the creation of a Business Forum on Multilingualism and Juvenes Translatores,[33] a translation contest between schools from all over Europe as part of the events marking the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

[35] On the "future of Europe", Orban believes in a strong, cohesive European Union capable of being a major actor on the global scene.

[36] Institutionally, he supported the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, voted down in referendums in France and Netherlands in 2005, believing that it should be ratified by the member states without further negotiations or without excluding some of its provisions.