Piotr Serafin, a trusted aide of Poland’s centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has been chosen as the country’s candidate for the EU executive's budget and administration commissioner, government sources have told TVP World. Tusk confirmed that Serafin had been selected as Poland's pick for a commissioner post. Jednogłośna decyzja rządu: Piotr Serafin kandydatem na Komisarza reprezentującego Polskę w Komisji Europejskiej❗ pic.twitter.com/tb3AP14l32 — PlatformaObywatelska (@Platforma_org) August 13, 2024 "Thank you Prime Minister Tusk and the Council of Ministers for your trust. I have always worked for a strong, safe Poland in a united Europe and this will not change," Serafin wrote on Twitter. Marek Belka, Poland''s Prime Minister in years 2004-2005, says that Serafin's potential departure to the EU could affect the quality of the Polish EU Council presidency that starts on January 1, 2025. "A very good candidate, the right man for the job. But in less than six months we are going to take over the presidency, and there was speculation that Piotr Serafin could lead it from the position of deputy foreign minister, now that he won't be able to do so, another person will have to be found - but I don't know who the government could appoint," he said for TVP World. Serafin’s name will now go into the race for one of the top jobs in the EU executive. If all goes to plan, the European Commission’s new cabinet should be in place by November. By opting for Serafin, the government in Warsaw has gone for one of Poland’s most experienced European politicians, who is also one of Tusk’s closest associates. "He has, in my opinion, three important skills. First of all, an excellent background as economist and lawyer. Secondly, experience of a member of government dealing with European issues from capital [Warsaw]. And the third one, having a deep knowledge of Brussels as a seat of European institutions," said Tomasz Orłowski, Poland's former deputy foreign minister, in an interview with TVP World. Track record From 1998 to 2009, Serafin worked as an official at the Office of the Committee for European Integration (UKIE), the supreme body of Polish administration that was in charge of Poland's integration policy with the EU. In 2004, in the year when Poland joined the EU, he took up the position of director of the UKIE's Department of Analysis and Strategy. From 2010-2012, Serafin was deputy head of the cabinet of Poland’s Janusz Lewandowski, the then budget commissioner, and from 2012-2014 he was secretary of state for European affairs in a previous Tusk government. From 2014 to 2019, he worked as head of Tusk’s cabinet when the latter was in charge of the European Council. At the end of last year, Serafin became the head of Poland’s permanent representation at the EU, in a move that confirmed his status as one of the government’s key players in the corridors of power in Brussels.
