Lecture | European Union Seminar
Priorities of Poland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union
- Margareta Kassangana (Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Kingdom of The Netherlands)
- Date
- Friday 14 February 2025
- Time
- Series
- European Union Seminar Series
- Location
-
P.J. Veth
Nonnensteeg 1-3
2311 VJ Leiden - Room
- 1.01
European Union is entering 2025 in a turbulent international environment. The chosen slogan of the Polish Presidency - Security, Europe! - spells out clearly where its priorities lie. Yet how to deliver security for European citizens in the face of rapidly rising geopolitical tensions, erosion of the rules-based international order, disagreements among the member states and domestic political polarization? Join us for a conversation with Poland’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, HE Margareta Kassangana, to discuss Poland’s priorities for the upcoming months and its plans to advance security in its various dimensions: external, internal, information, economic, energy, food, and health.
About the speaker
Margareta Kassangana is the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Kingdom of The Netherlands since 2023. In 2018-2022 she was Ambassador of Poland to Senegal (accred. Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’ Ivoire, Gambia, Guinee, Guinee Bissau and Mali). Ms. Kassangana graduated from Warsaw University, Faculty of Journalism and Political Sciences (Master of International relations, 1999) and Maastricht University Post–graduate Studies on the European Integration and Law, 2001). In 2001 she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she worked i.a. in the UN Department and the Polish Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office at Geneva (humanitarian, refugees and migration portfolio). Between 2007 and 2010 she worked in the European Commission DG Relex and the newly established External Action Service- EEAS, dealing with cooperation with the United Nations, in particular in the field of human rights, gender, social development, labour, migration and culture. In 2013-2015 she became Deputy Director of Africa and the Middle East Department responsible for Sub-Saharan Africa and relations with Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Between August 2015 and July 2017 she was a Deputy Permanent Representative of Poland to the United Nations in New York, where she led Poland’s campaign to become non-permanent member of the Security Council.
