Speaker Details

H.E. Mr Maciej POPOWSKI

Maciej Popowski is Director-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations at the European Commission. Ambassador Popowski is a Polish diplomat with more than 30 years of professional

experience. Closely involved in the accession negotiations of Poland to the EU, he was Director for EU affairs at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in 2001-2008 served as Deputy Head of the Permanent Representation of Poland to the European Union. Between 2003-2008 he was Poland's first permanent representative to the EU's Political and Security Committee. He then joined the European Commission as Director in Directorate-General for Development focusing on policy coherence, aid effectiveness, financing, relations with other donors and public information. In 2009-

2011 he served as Head of Cabinet of the President of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek. From 2011 until 2015 he was Deputy Secretary-General of the European External Action Service, supervising the Common Security and Defence Policy as well as development policy. In April 2016, Mr Popowski joined the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations serving as its Deputy Director-General and, from September 2020 until January 2023, as acting Director-General. He supervised, inter alia, EU's assistance to Ukraine following the Russian aggression as well works on the opinion on the candidate status for Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia.