Born in 1951, Lublin, Poland. Graduated in Economics from the University of Gdańsk, P.hD. in Economics in 1984. He was a member of the ‘Solidarity’ movement. He was a private consultant and worked at Polish Ocean Lines (1984-1991), was Minister of Privatisation (1991-1993), Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland (1997-2004), Vice-Chairman of the Poland-EU Committee (2001-2004), Chairman of the European Parliament’s Budgets Committee (2004), and was the European Commissioner for Financial Programming Budget (2010-2014). MEP from 2004 - 2010 and since 2014.