Background
Droutsas was born on August 5, 1968 in Nicosia, Cyprus as the son of a Greek father and a German mother from Frankfurt am Main. After primary school the family moved to Vienna, where his father worked at the Greek embassy.
Droutsas was born on August 5, 1968 in Nicosia, Cyprus as the son of a Greek father and a German mother from Frankfurt am Main. After primary school the family moved to Vienna, where his father worked at the Greek embassy.
In Vienna he was educated at the Theresianum and later studied at University of Vienna School of Law, graduating in 1994 with a paper on the accession of Cyprus to the European Union.
He became Member of Parliament of the European Parliament by replacing Stavros Lambrinidis, who went on to become Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece. Subsequently, Droutsas worked as an assistant professor of European Law at the European Affairs Research Centre of the Vienna University of Economics and Business. In parallel, Droutsas was a legal advisor of the Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schüssel between 1998 and 1999.
In 1999, Droutsas went back to Greece to serve as the Special Advisor to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, George Among the important issues, he advised on were political rapprochement with Turkey, Cyprus’s accession to the European Union and the Cyprus problem.
From March 2008, he served as the spokesperson of Pasok and in May 2008, he was appointed its Secretary for Foreign Policy and International Relations. On September 7, 2010, Droutsas was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece in a cabinet reshuffle.
His first tour as a foreign minister was to the Middle East from October 17 to October 20 with stops in Jordan, Israel and Palestinian territories, Egypt and Lebanon. Droutsas" works on European Law, International and European Commercial Law, and Foreign and Defense Policy have been published extensively in Greece and abroad.
He speaks German, English, French and Russian.
In March 2004, he was appointed the Director of the Diplomatic Cabinet of the President of Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) George A. Papandreou.
In the 17 June 2011 cabinet reshuffle, Droutsas was replaced as Foreign Minister by Stavros Lambrinidis, with whom he swapped places: since that date Droutsas is Member of the European Parliament.