László Kovács (; born 3 July 1939) is a Hungarian politician and diplomat, former European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union. He was the foreign minister of Hungary twice, from 1994 to 1998 and from 2002 to 2004. He also served as chairman of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) from 1998 to 2004. Studies László Kovács was born in Budapest on 3 July 1939. He finished at Petrik Lajos Technical School of Industrial Chemistry in 1957. From 1957 to 1966 he worked as a chemical technician. 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. Party career He joined the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party in 1963. 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. He was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from May 1986 and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from May 1989 to May 1990. He was elected a member of the party's Central Committee (KB) in April 1989. 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 party spokesman on foreign affairs from November 1990. He became party chairman on 5 September 1998, replacing Gyula Horn. He was confirmed in this office on 29 March 2003, however he resigned in 2004, when he was appointed European Commissioner. Political positions He was a Member of Parliament since 1990 (having been elected from the party's National List in 1990, from the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Regional List in 1994 and 1998 and from the Budapest Regional List in 2002). From 1990 to 1994 he was a member of the Hungarian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, becoming deputy leader of the delegation after the change of government following the 1998 parliamentary election. From 1998 until the 2002 parliamentary election he was deputy leader of the delegations to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Western European Union Assembly. He was a member of the Committee of Wise Persons of the Council of Europe. Kovács