Barbara Kudrycka (born 22 January 1956, in

Kolno Kolno is a town in northeastern Poland, located in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, about 150 km northeast of Warsaw. It is the seat of Kolno County, and the seat of the smaller administrative district ( gmina) called Gmina Kolno, but it is no ...

) is a professor of

administrative law Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of government agency, executive branch agencies of Forms of government, government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are gener ...

and public administration science and a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who has served as the

Minister of Science and Higher Education {{Unreferenced, date=March 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A Ministry of Higher Education is a government department that focuses on the provision or regulation of institutions of higher education. In some countries these exist as ministries compounde ...

in the cabinet of Donald Tusk from 2007 to 2013.

Education and early career

In 1978 Kudrycka graduated with a degree in law from the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. From 1978 to 1981 she was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party. In 1980 she joined the

Solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...

trade union. In 1985 she received a doctoral degree in law and in 1995 became an assistant professor at the Department of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw. From March 1998 through August 2007, for three consecutive terms, she was the rector of the

Białystok School of Public Administration The Białystok School of Public Administration was a non-state higher education institution founded in 1996 as an initiative of the Foundation in Support of Local Democracy. It was a non-state and non-profit school of higher education. The school ...

. Currently she is the school's president. Since October 2003 she has been the chair of administrative law at the Law Department of the University of Białystok.

Political career

Member of the European Parliament, 2004–2007

Since 2004 Kudrycka has been an active member of the Civic Platform. From 2004 through 2007, Kudrycka was a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

. She sat on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. In this capacity, she drafted the parliament's 2006 report on the European Return Fund for the 2007-13 period. She was a substitute for the Committee on Legal Affairs and a member of the parliament's delegation for relations with

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. Between 2006 and 2007, she also served on the

Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners The Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners, widely referred to as the CIA committee, was a Committee of the European Parliament that was set up in 2006 to investi ...

. Following her appointment to the Polish government in 2007, she was succeeded by

Krzysztof Hołowczyc Krzysztof Wiesław Hołowczyc (; born 4 June 1962 in Olsztyn, Poland) is a Polish rally driver. He won the Polish Rally Championship in 1995, 1996 and 1999 and the European Rally Championship in 1997. He was also member of European Parliament (20 ...

Minister of Science and Higher Education, 2007–2013

From 2007 to 2013, Kudrycka served as

in the government of Donald Tusk. During her time in office, she formed a working group with her counterparts from the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

to share the best of individual changes in education reform being made in each country. In a 2013 cabinet reshuffle, she was replaced by

Lena Kolarska-Bobinska Lena or LENA may refer to: Places * Léna Department, a department of Houet Province in Burkina Faso * Lena, Manitoba, an unincorporated community located in Killarney-Turtle Mountain municipality in Manitoba, Canada * Lena, Norway, a village in � ...

, another former MEP.

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–2019

Kudrycka again became a

following the

2014 European elections Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

. During her time in parliament, she served as vice-chairwoman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, under the leadership of chairman

Claude Moraes Claude Ajit Moraes (born 22 October 1965) is a British Labour Party politician and campaigner, who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London between 1999 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020.>s H ...

. In addition to her committee assignments, she was a member of the parliament's delegation for relations with

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Kudrycka was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Creative Industries and of the European Parliament Intergroup on Integrity (Transparency, Anti-Corruption and Organized Crime).

Other activities

* Transparency International Polska, Member *

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

, Member

Political positions

In November 2017, Kudrycka joined a parliamentary majority by voting in favor of a resolution invoking

Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union is a procedure in the treaties of the European Union ( EU) to suspend certain rights from a member state. While rights can be suspended, there is no mechanism to expel a state from the union. The procedu ...

, thereby potentially stripping Poland of voting rights in the EU for violating the common values of the bloc, including the rule of law. Shortly after, her political opponents had pictures of Kudrycka and five other Polish politicians strung from a makeshift gallows in a public square in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

.Joanna Berendt (November 27, 2017)
Protest Targeting Opposition Lawmakers Stirs Outrage in Poland
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Personal life

Kudrycka is married, with two children.

References

External links

The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education

The Chancellery of the Prime Minister
* *
Declaration of financial interests (in Polish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kudrycka, Barbara 1956 births Living people People from Kolno Polish United Workers' Party members Civic Platform politicians Civic Platform MEPs MEPs for Poland 2004–2009 Women MEPs for Poland Government ministers of Poland MEPs for Poland 2014–2019 Academic staff of the University of Białystok Women government ministers of Poland 20th-century Polish women