In addition to his native Hungarian, he speaks English, French, German and Russian.

[1] He graduated from Budapest School of Economics[2] in 1963 and worked in the Hungarian government until 1 May 2004, when his country joined the European Union and was appointed to the European Commission with Michel Barnier under Romano Prodi.

[3] He became the Hungarian European Commissioner holding the Regional Policy portfolio until the end of the Prodi Commission on 21 November 2004.

In 2005, he established a new research center for EU Enlargement Studies at the CEU.

[6] Balázs became the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs in April 2009, serving until May 2010.