Pole promoted to head of agriculture department

Promotion for Jerzy Plewa.


The European Commission has promoted Jerzy Plewa to become director-general for agriculture and rural development from 16 April. He becomes the second Pole to head a Commission department after Jan Truszczynski, the director-general for education and culture.

The vacancy arose because José Manuel Silva Rodríguez, the current director-general, asked to step down early, ahead of his scheduled retirement, for personal reasons.

Plewa is currently one of the department's four deputy directors-general, and has responsibility for rural development. He joined the department at the rank of deputy director-general (initially with responsibility for

international affairs) in October 2006.

Aged 58, he is a former deputy minister for agriculture in Poland and was a leading member of Poland's negotiating team for membership of the European Union. Before that he had held a series of posts in the Polish ministry of agriculture and in Polish universities.

In negotiations on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and the EU's budget for 2014-20, Plewa has been leading on rural development issues. He will continue to do so as director-general.

Silva Rodriguez, 63, has been director-general for agriculture since 2010, his second stint in a position that he had previously occupied from 1999 to 2005. He was director-general for research from 2005 to 2010.
Original Article Here