Rouček was born in 1954 in Kladno, where he graduated from primary and secondary school. From the age of fifteen, he worked on construction sites and from the age of sixteen at Poldi Steel Works. After graduating high school, he was successively employed as an aircraft loader, mine worker and computer programmer.
In 1977, he emigrated to Austria for political reasons, where he became involved in the Social Democratic movement. From 1978 to 1984, he studied political science and sociology at the University of Vienna. He completed his studies with a doctor’s degree with a specialization in international relations. While studying, he worked in various professions, including as a tile setter, bottle sorter at Coca Cola and waiter. From 1980, he was employed in the documentation and press office at the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party of Austria under Chancellor Bruno Kreisky.
Rouček applied his education, work and life experiences from Austria, the US, Great Britain, and Australia in the preparation of many Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) program documents; after his return from exile, he became the spokesperson of the party. After the victorious parliamentary elections in 1998, he worked 4 years as a spokesman for the Government of the Czech Republic.
Rouček addressing a session of the European Parliament in Brussels
In 2002, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic where he served as vice-chairman of the Committee on European Integration, vice-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and vice-chairman of the ČSSD Parliamentary Club. From spring 2003, he has served as the head of the ČSSD observer delegation to the European Parliament.
In June 2004, he was elected to the European Parliament, where he worked in the Foreign Affairs Committee from 2004 and became its first Vice-Chair in November 2006. He was also a member of the Committee on Budgets from 2004 to 2009.
Although he was the highest-ranking Czech Social Democrat in the EU institutions, for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament the ČSSD placed him in an unelectable ninth place on its candidate list, and he thus did not defend his MEP mandate. He then withdrew from active politics altogether.
Rouček described his life's journey in his autobiography entitled Můj a náš příběh (My and Our Story).
Other activities
Since 2015, Rouček has been co-chair of the Czech-German Discussion Forum to promote dialogue between Czechs and Germans.
Numerous articles in professional journals and newspapers, including The World Today, Soviet Studies, Australian Medical Journal, International Politics, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau, Profil, Liberation, Lidové noviny, Právo and others.
