In the list of the 17 European Parliament lawmakers, Bielan was named one of “the behind-the-scene movers.”
In Bielan’s profile, Politico recalls that earlier this month he was appointed president of the European Conservatives and Reformists, and “as leader of Poland’s Law and Justice delegation in the Parliament, maintains a direct line to party leader Jarosław Kaczyński.”
According to Politico: “While ties between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the Trump administration have cooled, Bielan has emerged as a key bridge to Washington, and the ECR is the Republican Party’s official sister party in Europe. Bielan led ECR missions to meet senior U.S. officials and politicians, maintaining the strong bond between the U.S. and Poland.”
The ‘power brokers’ group in the list is led by the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola.
Politico writes that the top 17 will have an important voice in shaping policy battles “on deregulation, climate, tech and the EU budget” and in the run-up to “the midterm top-jobs reshuffle and an election year that threatens to reshape the bloc.”
The website adds: “They will be doing that work against a backdrop of two years of growing mistrust between Europe’s biggest mainstream political families (the European People’s Party and the Socialists and Democrats), an increasingly powerful far right, a sweeping simplification and competitiveness drive, and a heated migration debate.”
Fifty-two-year-old Bielan was first elected to the Polish Parliament at the age of 23. He served as an MEP between 2004 and 2014, and was re-elected in 2019.
He was one of the key figures behind the successful presidential campaign of Lech Kaczyński in the 2005 elections in Poland.
(mk)