Leonard Orban
| Leonard Orban | |
|---|---|
| European Commissioner for Multilingualism | |
|
In office 1 January 2007 – 9 February 2010 |
|
| President | José Manuel Barroso |
| Preceded by | Ján Figeľ (Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism) |
| Succeeded by | Androulla Vassiliou (Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
28 June 1961 Braşov, Romania |
| Political party | National Liberal Party |
| Alma mater |
Transylvania University of Braşov Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies |
| Profession |
Engineer Economist |
Leonard Orban (born 28 June 1961) is a Romanian independent technocrat who served as the Commissioner for Multilingualism in the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union (EU). He was responsible for the EU language policy and was the first Romanian Commissioner and the first member of the Commission whose portfolio is exclusively multilingualism. His term of office began on 1 January 2007 and ended on 9 February 2010. With a background in engineering and economics, Orban has taken up various posts working for the accession of Romania to the European Union, most prominently as Deputy and later as Chief Negotiator for his country at the time of final negotiations with the European Union.
Steering the multilingualism language policy of the EU, Orban focused on promoting foreign language learning through EU programmes such as the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013. In addition, his remit also included the effective functioning of the EU's extensive interpretation, translation and publication services in the 23 official languages. To support the remit of his portfolio, Orban oversaw a staff of 3,400 in total (approximately 15 per cent of the Brussels executive's workforce) and approximately 1 per cent of the EU budget.
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