Europa Lecture by Radosław Sikorski
On Thursday 12 June 2013 , Radosław Sikorski, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, gave the first Europa lecture entitled: 'Poland, the Netherlands and the European Union - Common Challenges'.
Biography
Radosław Sikorski was born on 23rd February 1963 in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a B.A. and an M.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE).
Sikorski headed the students’ strike committee during the unrest in Bydgoszcz in March 1981. He was granted political asylum in Great Britain in 1982-89.
He was a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola in 1986-89. He won the World Press Photo award in 1987 for a photograph taken in Afghanistan.
As Deputy Minister of National Defence in 1992, Radosław Sikorski initiated Poland’s NATO accession campaign. In 1998-2001 he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Honorary Chairman of the Foundation for Assistance to Poles in the East.
From 2002 to 2005, he was resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. and executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative. He was editor of the analytical publication European Outlook and organized international conferences on topics such as UN reform and the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement. He appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs as an expert on Atlantic issues. In 2012 he was named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by the Foreign Policy magazine „for telling the truth, even when it’s not diplomatic”.
Radosław Sikorski was elected senator for Bydgoszcz in 2005 and served as Minister of National Defence in 2005-2007. In 2007, he was elected to the Lower House of the Polish Parliament (the Sejm) from the Civic Platform list.
He was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland on 16 November 2007.
He has been Chairman of the Committee on European Affairs since 1st January 2010.
He was elected Vice-Chairman of the Civic Platform in October 2010.