Elżbieta Bieńkowska

Elżbieta Ewa Bieńkowska , born Moycho ( listen ^?^/^I ) (born February 4, 1964 in Katowice ) is a Polish politician. She was Minister for Regional Development in the first and second governments of Donald Tusk from 2007 to 2013 and Minister for Infrastructure and Development from November 27, 2013 to November 2014. Since then she has served as Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry and Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Juncker Commission .

education

In 1983 she finished the IV. General Education Lyceum "Stanisław Staszic" in Sosnowiec , in 1988 she studied Persian Philology at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow , in 1996 she studied at the State School for Public Administration ( Krajowa Szkoła Administracji Publicznej ) and in 1998 a postgraduate course at the Szkoła Główna Handlowa .

Career

Bieńkowska began her first job in 1996 in the Katowice Voivodeship Office, where from 1997 she dealt with the then launched PHARE Inred program (EU funding for Lesser Poland and Silesia) and structural funds for European regional policy. She advocates the decentralization of public administration. During this time she was the voivod's representative for regional contracts for the Katowice Voivodeship and for the Regional Development Strategy. She completed an internship at the Polish Foreign Ministry ( Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych ), including two months in Great Britain. When Jan Olbrycht was Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship , Bieńkowska became the director of the Regional Development Department. There she coordinated the work of a team that developed the regional innovation strategy for the Silesian Voivodeship and a working group for updating the development strategy of this voivodeship for the years 2000 to 2020. She was also the coordinator of a working group that set up the operational regional program of the Silesian Voivodeship for the Years 2007 to 2013. She was a member of the Committee for Monitoring the Regional Program for the Silesian Voivodeship. On October 15, 2007 she was appointed director of the Silesian Center for Entrepreneurship ( Śląskie Centrum Przedsiębiorczości ) by the Voivodeship Administration . From 2002 to 2007, Bieńkowska was Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Upper Silesian Agency for Regional Development ( Górnośląska Agencja Rozwoju Regionalnego SA ).

She gave lectures at the Silesian Technical University on the subject of EU structural programs.

Minister

After the parliamentary elections on October 21, 2007, she was sworn in on November 16, 2007 as Minister for Regional Development in the Tusk government . The candidacy was proposed by the chairman of the regional administration of Platforma Obywatelska in the Silesian Voivodeship, Tomasz Tomczykiewicz . Her predecessor in office was Grażyna Gęsicka .

On November 25, 2013, Bieńkowska was dismissed from the post of Minister for Regional Development by President Bronisław Komorowski and appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Development.

EU commissioner

On September 10, 2014, Bieńkowska was appointed Commissioner of the European Commission for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises by the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker , taking office in November 2014.