In the spotlight: Anna Fotyga

Stefan Meller, whom she replaced, was Poland's ambassador to both France and Russia, Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz was the Prime Minister before he headed the Foreign Ministry and Władysław Bartoszewski was the ambassador to Austria.

Fotyga, who majored in foreign trade at the University of Gdańsk, has experience mainly in public administration. She finished the Danish School of Public Administration and later was a vice president of the supervisory board at the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) as well as Deputy Mayor of Gdańsk. She resigned from the latter post after conflict with the Mayor (who was from Civic Platform) whom she accused of fraud. Fotyga was an expert for the World Bank as well as for the World Labour Organisation, but perhaps the most important factor contributing to her nomination was her past activity in Solidarity. Fotyga worked in the movement in 1981 and after 1989, working in and later heading the movement's foreign office. Apparently, her office was just opposite the office of Solidarity's then vice president, Lech Kaczyński. Her only real experience in foreign relations and diplomacy came when she was Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek's advisor on foreign affairs in 2000 and then the director of the foreign affairs department in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister the following year.