Elżbieta Bieńkowska

Elżbieta Ewa Bieńkowska (; née Moycho; born on 4 February 1964) is a Polish politician who served as Poland's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and Transport before becoming a European Commissioner in the team of Jean-Claude Juncker from 2014 to 2019.

Bieńkowska was Minister of Regional Development in Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Cabinet from 16 November 2007 until 27 November 2013, when she was appointed Deputy Prime Minister of Poland while continuing her previous responsibilities at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development.

Education Bieńkowska graduated from Jagiellonian University with a Master's degree in Oriental Philology in 1989. She is not a party member, and was elected to the Senate of Poland in 2011 as an independent candidate, backed by the Civic Platform.

Minister for Infrastructure and Development, 2007–2013 In the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Bieńkowska served as Minister for Infrastructure and Development for Poland, as well as Deputy Prime Minister from the end of 2013 until the end of September 2014. In this capacity, she was charge of allocating European Union funding and the country's transport infrastructure. Under her leadership, the ministry was Poland's second-largest department after the ministry of finance, with 1,600 employees and nine deputy ministers.

On 10 September 2014, Juncker designated Bieńkowska as European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, following which, on 1 November 2014, she took office in the Juncker Commission.

In her capacity as Commissioner, Bieńkowska was in charge of the industrial part of the EU’s defence and security strategy and chaired the European Commission's High-level Group of Personalities on Defence Research from 2015. In 2016, she proposed the European Defence Fund and the accompanying European Defense Industrial Development Program, as part of the response to Britain’s decision to leave the EU.

Also during her time in office, Bieńkowska pushed for the European Commission to have oversight powers to supervise national controls and tests for cars in the wake of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. In 2018, she called for investing Horizon Europe funds of €20 billion into artificial intelligence research.

Other activities TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI), Member of the Governance Board Una Europa Association, Member of the Advisory Board

Honours and decorations

Personal life Bieńkowska is married and has three children.