Anna Fotyga

Anna Fotyga MEP
Chair of the European Parliament Security and Defence Subcommittee
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 July 2014
Preceded by	New position
Member of the European Parliament
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 June 2004
Constituency	Poland
Chief of the Chancellery of the President
In office 29 November 2007 – 20 August 2008
President	Lech Kaczyński
Preceded by	Robert Draba (acting)
Succeeded by	Piotr Kownacki
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 9 May 2006 – 15 November 2007
Prime Minister	Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz Jarosław Kaczyński
Preceded by	Stefan Meller
Succeeded by	Radosław Sikorski
Personal details
Born	Anna Elżbieta Fotyga (1957-01-12) 12 January 1957 Lębork, Poland
Political party	Polish: Law and Justice EU: ERC
Spouse	Ryszard Fotyga
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Warsaw University of Gdańsk

Anna Fotyga with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Anna Elżbieta Fotyga ['anːa fɔˈtɨɡa] née Kawecka (born 12 January 1957 in Lębork) is a Polish politician and Member of the European Parliament from Poland. She has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, in the successive cabinets of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński from (2006-2007) and Chief of the Chancellery of the President (2007-2008).

Fotyga is a graduate of the University of Gdańsk and the Danish School of Public Administration. She also served postgraduate internships at the Department of Labor of the United States, Cornell University in New York and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In 1981, and again after 1989, she acted as Head of the Foreign Office of the Solidarity headquarters in Gdańsk, and was a close associate of Lech Kaczyński. In 2000, Fotyga served as a foreign affairs adviser under then Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek. Subsequently, she was Deputy Chair of the Supervisory Board of Social Security Administration (Zakład Ubezpieczen Spolecznych, ZUS) with special expertise in International Labour Organization (Międzynarodowa Organizacja Pracy) and the World Bank. From 2002 to 2004, she was Deputy Mayor of Gdańsk.

Fotyga garnered 25,994 votes (the second highest in the region) in the 2004 European parliamentary elections as a candidate of the Law and Justice (PiS) party in the Pomeranian Voivodship.

On 9 May 2006 Anna Fotyga was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland by President Lech Kaczyński, replacing Stefan Meller. The opposition criticised her office for pursuing a policy of isolation in relation to Russia and Germany. On 7 September 2007, Fotyga was dismissed from her post but re-appointed again on the same day; in this way the prime minister and president avoided her being dismissed by a vote of censure prepared by the Civic Platform three months earlier. In July 2014 she became chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Security and Defence.

Her position on foreign affairs is congruent with the policy stance of PiS, based on the concept of Poland as a strong, independent country, poised to confront Germany or Russia when necessary. She has also pursued a policy of close alignment with the U.S.

Following the fall of the Kaczynski administration in 2007, she was succeeded by Radosław Sikorski as foreign minister of Poland.

Until 20 August 2008, Fotyga was the chief of the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland.

On 23 November 2016 she proposed a resolution to counteract propaganda against the EU, which includes advocating censoring Russian media, such as RT, Sputnik or Russky Mir. The proposal came under criticism of European Federation of Journalists, and Russian government.

She is married and has two children.

See also

• European Parliament Election, 2004 (Poland)