Biography

Ernst-Jörg von Studnitz (born June 5, 1937 in Berlin-Steglitz) is a German lawyer and diplomat.

He studied law from 1956 to 1960 at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Kiel. He did a year abroad at Bloomington in the United States. Studnitz entered the higher Foreign Service in 1967. He worked from 1969 to 1973 at the German Embassy in Moscow and from 1973 to 1976 at the German Embassy in Ankara. During the next four years he was employed again at the Foreign Office in Bonn. This was followed by three years of service at the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations in New York. After his return from the United States, Studnitz got reinstated from 1983 until 1986 in the Bonn Foreign Office.

He was ambassador in Moscow from 1995 until 2002. Since then he has been a board member of the German-Russian Forum. Simultaneously he is a member of the steering committee of the German-Russian Petersburg Dialogue.

In 2005 he was awarded the Prize Aleksandr Men for his services for the intercultural exchange between Russia and Western Europe. He also received the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation for his commitment to improving German-Russian relations. In 1998 he received the Large Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Lazar Comanescu (born June 4, 1949 in Horezu, Valcea County) is a Romanian diplomat and was Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country between April 2008 and December 2008.

In the years 1967-1972 Comanescu studied Foreign Trade at the University of Economics in Bucharest and then entered the diplomatic service. In 1982 he joined the same university as a lecturer, where he received his doctorate in 1983 with a focus on international economic relations.

In 1990 he returned to the Foreign Ministry, where he initially held the position of adviser. In 1994 he became director of the European Department of State and in 1995 Secretary of State. From 1998 to 2001 he was the Romanian Ambassador to NATO and subsequently Ambassador to the European Union until 2008. Since May 2009 he has been the Ambassador of Romania in Germany.

Lazar Comanescu is married and has one daughter. He speaks French, English, Spanish and German.