Secretary of State for European affairs in the MFA and Prime Minister’s Plenipotentiary for European Council meetings since 2014. Studied journalism and political sciences, English philology, and security in Poland, Great Britain (Oxford), France, USA and Australia. Holds a doctorate in political science and is a university lecturer on European affairs. Former member of the European Parliament (2009-2013) where he dealt with the implementation of EU Treaties, EU budget, the protection of privacy and the European Digital Agenda. In 2004 received a Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw’s Institute of International Relations in the Department of Journalism and Political Science. Former advisor to the Secretary of the Committee for European Integration, working for the head of the Office of the Committee for European Integration. Between 2004-2009 an advisor to the Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and to the Delegation of the Civic Platform to the European Parliament. In the years 2013-2014 Minister of Administration and Digitalization in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Cabinet.
Experts
Rafał Trzaskowski
Łukasz Turski
Professor of Physics. Graduated from Warsaw University and Warsaw Technical University. Laureate of the Hugo Steinhaus Prize and the Golden Medal of the European Physical Society. Author of numerous publications in journals and several radio and TV programs on science and society. Creator and ongoing chair for the Warsaw Scientific Picnics (since 1997). Chair for Copernicus Science Center Council. Member of the Polish Adam Smith Center Council. From 1996 till 2003 chair of the Polish Public Radio Commission on Education Programs. From 2000-2004 elected member of the State Committee for Research (KBN). Visiting Professor in Universities and Research Institutions in the US, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden. Full professor of physics in the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (since 1985) and since 2002 full professor in the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Department of the Cardinal Wyszyński University.
Lilja Twardosz
Immigrant from Ukraine living in Poland.
Karolina Tyniec - Margańska
MA in Journalism, Social Communication and International Relations at the Warsaw University. 2002- 2003 Journalist for Channel 3 of Polish Radio. 2003-2004 the Deutsche Welle correspondent in Poland. Since 2004 has worked as the Public Relations specialist in DaimlerChrysler Automotive Poland.
Vuk Uskoković
Vuk Uskoković comes from Belgrade, Serbia. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences, majoring in Journalism. He has completed specialist studies in Television and Multimedia Journalism at the University of Oklahoma, USA. Vuk has more than 20 years of experience in all types of media outlets - press, radio, online, news agency, and television. While being a reporter, he covered stories ranging from politics, economy, education, healthcare, energetics, and foreign affairs. Reporting live from Europe and Asia, Vuk also did numerous interviews with ministers and ambassadors. Teaching Broadcast Journalism at Serbia's Journalist Association, he had the opportunity to pass the know-how to young, aspiring students, hoping to inspire them to pursue the heights of visual storytelling.
Petr Vágner
Graduated from the Department of Philosophy and History of the Charles University in Prague. Worked in the Czechoslovak and later the Czech Academy of Science and conducted research in history of science. He worked in Embassy of the Czech Republic in Moscow (1995-1999), , Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in Department of Central Europe (1999-2005) and Embassy of the Czech Republic in Kyiv (2005-2009). Currently executive director of the Visegrad Fund.
Laurynas Vaičiūnas
Laurynas Vaičiūnas is the deputy director of the Jan Nowak-Jezioranski College of Eastern Europe in Wroclaw, an NGO working to stimulate intellectual exchange between Eastern Europe and the rest of the world. Its main publications include bimonthlies New Eastern Europe and Nowa Europa Wschodnia. Laurynas is responsible for publishing, international contacts and the organisation’s headquarters in Wojnowice Castle. Laurynas has a background in history, politics and international relations with degrees from the University of Bath and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies UCL.
György Varga
Deputy Executive Director of the International Visegrad fund. A translator (V. Havel, B. Hrabal, M. Kundera, I. Klíma and other authors) and literary historian dealing mainly with the Czech and Czechoslovakian literature. A close associate of the Czech opposition of the 1970s and 1980s. He became Budapest correspondent of the Czech Section of Radio Free Europe (1988–90). Following the change of the political regime he was appointed as Ambassador of Hungary in Prague (1990-95). Later he served as the head of the Central European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary (1998-2000) and Consul General in Slovakia(2000-04), the Chief Counsellor at the Department of Cultural and Science Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary (2004-05) and the Director of the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Prague (2005-10), He was awarded by the I. Level Medal of Merit by President Havel the Knight of Cross of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic by President Göncz.
Magdaléna Vašáryová
A member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic. Chairwoman of the oldest Slovak women’s association „Živena“ and chairwoman of the Institute for cultural policies. In the past she served as a State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Poland (2000 – 2005), between 1990 – 1993 Czechoslovak Ambassador to Austria. Founder and in years 1993 – 2000 the director of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association - SFPA (today honorary chair). Lectured at the Institute of International Relationships and Law Harmonization at the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava, and currently she is lecturer at the CEVRO Institute (Prague). In 2010 she was awarded with a Gold Medal for Meritorious for Culture – Gloria Artis. An author of several books and articles in domestic and international press.
Michal Vašečka
Doc. PhDr. Michal Vašečka, PhD (1972) is sociologist by background and focuses his interests on issues of ethnicity, race, antisemitism, and migration studies. As an Associate Professor he operates at the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (BISLA) since 2015 and he is a director of Bratislava Policy Institute. He operated at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno in 2002-2017 and at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of the Comenius University in 2006-2009. As a visiting scholar he operated at the New School University in New York (1996-1997) and at the University of London (1998), in 2008-2009 he lectured at the Georgetown University in Washington, DC, in 2015 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, in 2016 he was a scholar-in-residence in the ISGAP at Oxford University. Michal Vašečka is a founder of the Center for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture, he served a director of the CVEK (2006-2012). In 1998-2005 he operated at the Slovak think-tank Institute of Public Affairs as a program director on expert analysis of the Slovak transformation process with a focus on national minorities and the state of civil society in Slovakia. He has been a consultant for the World Bank in 2000-2008 and in 2011-2012. Since 2012 Michal Vašečka serves as a representative of the Slovak Republic in the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), human rights body of the Council of Europe. He is also as a vice-chairman of the governmental committee VRAX tackling extremism and racism in Slovakia. Michal Vašečka serves as a non-resident research associate at the European Centre for Minority Issues in Flensburg. In 2018 Michal became a laureate of the Award for special contribution in the field human rights of Minister of Justice of Slovakia.
