School of Social & Political Sciences

European Foreign and Security Policy in Practice After the Lisbon Treaty

Ambassador Károly Grúber (Hungary)

1-3pm, Room 226, Main Building (Gilbert Scott)

Ambassador  Károly Grúber is the Hungarian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Representative to Political and Security Committee of the European Council. He played a key role during the Hungarian EU presidency.  He will also present a talk on "European foreign and security policy in practice after the Lisbon Treaty". This will be followed by a Question and Answer session.

The "double-hatted" ambassador

A diplomat or a professor? The answer is not easy in the case of Károly Grúber, who has considerable experience in both areas, despite his young age. His situation is best described by a term used in EU political terminology and practice: the “double-hatted” ambassador.

Károly Grúber has led the populous group of the Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Department of the Hungarian Permanent Representation to the EU, in Brussels, since October 2010. Much of his career has been accompanied by EU studies and research projects. He first earned an MA in English and Italian, then in Political Science at the Central European University (CEU). Later, he studied at the European Institute of Sussex University, where he obtained a PhD in European Foreign Policy.

Mr Grúber first worked for the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, then he went on to the Department of Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, just to plunge into diplomacy. Later, after a detour at the Secretariat of EU Integration and the Embassy in London, he returned to the department, already as its head. From there, he made it to the EU headquarters in Brussels.

As for the other “self”, Károly has been a lecturer at the Department of European Public Policies of Széchenyi István University of Győr for nine years; but earlier, he also taught in Sussex, Pécs, Szombathely and Cluj. His professional fields include European multi-level governance, Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, regionalism and minorities. In 2009, he was appointed Honorary Senior Fellow by the Department for Central-Eastern European Studies of Glasgow University.

Regarding the merger of education and diplomacy, Mr Grúber says, “there are many smart people working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but they often tend to take certain things for granted. Therefore, it is extremely useful when a student asks a question with sincere curiosity, but perhaps a bit naively, about a thing that we ignored or found obvious before. And such questions can raise our awareness of new aspects.” Of course, his countless tasks related to the Presidency have compelled him to suspend teaching and research, though he was happy to find that he will be allowed to do research and enrich the number of his scientific publications any time in many libraries and research institutes in Brussels.

All welcome: this seminar is open to the public.

For more information please visit https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/507316915968521/

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This seminar is supported by the Centre for Russian, Central and East European Studies (CRCEES) and the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. 

First published: 21 March 2013