Rafał Trzaskowski

Trzaskowski attended XI Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Mikołaja Reja in Warsaw, and then studied International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of Warsaw. He is a graduate of the College of Europe in Natolin. He was granted a scholarship at the Oxford University in 1996 as well as the European Union Institute for Security Research in Paris in 2002. In 2004, he obtained his doctoral degree in political science at the Faculty of Journalism of the University of Warsaw.[2]

Since 1995, he worked as a simultaneous translator and an English teacher. In 1998, he became an academic teacher at the National School of Public Administration, and in 2002 at the Collegium Civitas. His scientific interests primarily concern the European integration and international affairs. Since 2002, he has also worked as an analyst at the European Centre in Natolin.[3]

Between 2000 and 2001, he started working for Jacek Saryusz-Wolski at Poland's Office of the European Integration Committee. In the years 2004-2009, he was an advisor of the Civic Platform political party at the European Parliament. In 2009, having received 25,178 votes, he was elected Member of the European Parliament representing the Platforma Obywatelska party.[4] During his election campaign he was supported by well-known Polish personalities and artists such as Tomasz Karolak, Grzegorz Turnau, Michał Żebrowski and Urszula Dudziak. At the European Parliament, he was a member of the European People's Party. In 2010, he was the head of the election campaign of Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz running for the post of the mayor of Warsaw in the 2010 Polish local elections.[5]

On 27 November 2013, Trzaskowski was sworn in as the Minister of Administration and Digitization by President Bronisław Komorowski. During his ministry, Trzaskowski created a system of notifying the Government Security Center warning citizens, about violent meteorological phenomena. He was responsible for cooperation with local governments, supervision over voivods and assistance to victims in connection with natural disasters, for example during the floods in 2014, as well as cybersecurity, accessibility of content on the Internet for people with disabilities and protection of personal data on the web. On 24 September 2014, he became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and dealt with co-ordinating matters relating to the EU across the different ministries of the Donald Tusk cabinet. At that time, Trzaskowski was the main negotiator in relations with the EU on behalf of the prime minister and coordinated the work of ministries in relations with EU institutions. [6]

In 2015, he participated in the 2015 Polish parliamentary elections and won a seat in the Sejm having received 47,080 votes.[7] In 2016, he became a National Council Member of the Civic Platform party. In the same year, he assumed the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the shadow cabinet created by the Civic Platform.[8] On 29 March 2017, he became the vice-chairman of the European People's Party.[9] As a Member of the Sejm, Trzaskowski was a member of the European Union Affairs Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee and the Digitization, Innovation and Modern Technologies Committee. In parliamentary activities, Trzaskowski mainly dealt with issues related to foreign affairs, European policy, defence, as well as health policy, protection of civil and minority rights, and self-government support. During his time, he submitted over 150 interpellations and over 70 parliamentary questions.

In 2017, he received the order of the Legion of Honour for his contributions to strengthening the Polish-French relations.[10]

• European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member of the Council[19]

He is the son of jazz pianist and composer Andrzej Trzaskowski and Teresa née Arens. He is a stepbrother of Piotr Ferster, a director of the Piwnica pod Baranami literary cabaret in Kraków. His great-grandfather, Bronisław Trzaskowski, was a linguist who established some of the first girls' secondary schools (gimnazja) in Poland.

As an 8-year-old, he appeared on "Our Backyard" (Polish: Nasze podwórko), a 1980 Polish children's television series and had a promising career as an actor.[20] He has a wife, Małgorzata, and two children: Aleksandra and Stanisław.

• Dynamika reformy systemu podejmowania decyzji w Unii Europejskiej, Wydawnictwo Prawo i Praktyka Gospodarcza, Warsaw 2004
• Polityczne podstawy rozszerzenia UE, Wydawnictwo Natolin, Warsaw 1997
• Przyszły Traktat konstytucyjny. Granice kompromisu w dziedzinie podejmowania decyzji większością kwalifikowaną (co-written with Jan Barcz), Wydawnictwo Prawo i Praktyka Gospodarcza, Warsaw 2004