Piotr Antoni Świtalski (born 2 August 1957, in

Kutno Kutno is a city in central Poland with 42,704 inhabitants (2021) and an area of . It is the capital of Kutno County in the Łódź Voivodeship. Founded in the medieval period, Kutno was a local center of crafts and trade, owing its growth to i ...

) is a Polish diplomat; permanent representative of Poland to the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

(2005–2010) and ambassador of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

(2015–2019).

Life

Świtalski has graduated from Faculty of Journalism and Political Science at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw (, ) is a public university, public research university in Warsaw, Poland. Established on November 19, 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country, offering 37 different fields of study as well ...

and

Moscow State Institute of International Relations Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) (, also known as MGIMO University) is an higher education, institute of higher education located in Moscow, Russia. The institute is run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Russian ...

(1982). In 1985, he defended his Ph.D. dissertation in history. In 1986, he joined the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

. He was head of the unit at the Department of European Institutions. From 1990 to 1993 he was First Secretary and Councillor at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Poland to the United Nations Office and the International Organizations in Vienna. For next three years he held the post of department director at the OSCE Secretary. He returned to the MFA, being responsible mostly for multilateral relations. Between 1999 and 2002 he was serving at the Poland embassy in Nairobi as permanent representative to

UNEP The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...

and

UN-Habitat The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) is the United Nations programme for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1977 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settleme ...

. Following his directoral post at the MFA Department of Foreign Policy Planning (2002–2005), on 11 January 2005 he was nominated Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 20 September 2005 he became permanent representative of Poland to the Council of Europe in

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. Ending his term on 1 September 2010, he became director for policy planning at the Council of Europe Secretary. In 2014, he returned to the MFA, Warsaw. He was director of Asia and Pacific Department. From September 2015 to 2019 he was serving as the European Union ambassador to Armenia. In January 2025, he became head of the Polish Embassy in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, India, as

Chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

. Besides Polish, Świtalski speaks English,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, and French. He is married, with two children.

Works

* Гражданин и мировая политика. Цикл лекций, Wyd. Shkola grazhdanskogo prosveshchenya, Riga, 2022, ISBN 978-9934-9133-0-3 * ''Europe and the Spectre of Post-Growth Society'', Strasburg: Council of Europe, 2014, . * ''Emocje, interesy, wartości. Przemiany paradygmatów polityki międzynarodowej'', Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2013, . * ''Droga do Pangei: polityka międzynarodowa czasu „globalizacyjnej konwergencji”'', Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2011, . * ''Niecierpliwość świata. Uwagi o polityce międzynarodowej czasu globalizacji'', Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Scholar, 2008, . * ''OBWE w systemie bezpieczeństwa europejskiego: szanse i ograniczenia'', Warszawa: Instytut Spraw Publicznych, 1997, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Switalski, Piotr 1957 births Ambassadors of the European Union to Armenia Living people Moscow State Institute of International Relations alumni People from Kutno Permanent representatives of Poland to the Council of Europe Polish officials of the European Union University of Warsaw alumni