Janusz Lewandowski

Background

Lewandowski was born in Lublin.

Education

He graduated in economics from University of Gdańsk, received a doctorate and was a lecturer there until 1984.

Career

On 27 November 2009 he obtained the post of Budget and Financial Programming Commissioner of the European Commission and is affiliated to the European People"s Party (EPP). Later he worked for Polish Oceanic Lincolnshire (Polskie Linie Oceaniczne). He is an author of a book on famous liberals and he also writes short articles for several newspapers and magazines, including Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Parkiet, Polityka, Wprost and Newsweek.

From 1980–1989 he was an economics adviser to the Solidarity anti-communist movement, and in 1988 he was one of the founders of the Liberal Democratic Congress.

He was the Minister of Privatization in the cabinets of January Krzysztof Bielecki (1990–1991) and Hanna Suchocka (1992–1993). His major successes were the foundation of the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the mass privatization programme (Program Powszechnej Prywatyzacji).

He lost his parliamentary seat in the 1993 elections and worked as an international expert from 1994–1997. Since 2003 he was an observer in the European Parliament.

On 23 July 2004 he was elected chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Budgets.

Andris Piebalgs was twice Acting Commissioner in his stead, from 19 April 2014 – 25 May 2014 while he was on electoral campaign leave for the 2014 elections to the European Parliament and from 1 July 2014 – 16 July 2014 after he took up his seat. Lewandowski has expressed skepticism about the thesis of anthropogenic climate change, putting him at odds with many of his colleagues in the Barroso Commission. MEPs have asked "which steps" president Barroso will take over the comments.

Achievements

• He was also a lecturer at Harvard University and the founder of the Research Institute for Market Economy in Gdańsk (Instytut Badań nad Gospodarką Rynkową w Gdańsku).

Politics

Together with Donald Tusk and other liberals he seceded from UW to form Civic Platform, and was elected an Member of Parliament again in 2001. In the European elections of 13 June 2004 he was a candidate of Civic Platform in constituency #1 Pomeranian Voivodship and received 79,879 votes (=2017%, the best result in the region).

Membership

After the merger of Kongres Liberalno - Demokratyczny (Liberal Democratic Congress) and Democratic Union in 1994 he become a member of Freedom Union (UW), and in 1997 member of Sejm representing UW.