Mr. Marek Siwiec, former Secretary of State for the President of the Republic of Poland, and currently a Member of the European Parliament as the Head of the Delegation to Ukraine will be speaking about the EU on the afternoon of April 7 from 3:30 p.m. in the LSC Theatre. His presentation is entitled "Is the United Europe Capable of Keeping up with the US?" This is free and open to the public.

Marek Siwiec was born in Piekary Slaskie near Tarnowskie Gory and graduated from the Department of Solid-State Physics at Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in Kracow in 1980, and the Post-Graduate Journalist Studies in Warsaw in 1988.

Mr. Siwiec became deputy of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland from a constituency in the Kalisz Province in 1991. During this time he also served as a member of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) Parliamentary Caucus, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Media, and for parliamentary friendship groups: Poland-Columbia and Poland-South Korea. He was also Editor-in-Chief of the “Trybuna” daily and for some time served as the press spokesman of the SLD Parliamentary Caucus.

In 1993 he became a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In the years 1993-96, he was a member of the National Broadcasting Council, and in 1996 was Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and served as the Head of Political Strategy Staff.
In 2004, Mr. Siwiec ran in the first election for the European Parliament in Poland, successfully winning a five year term. Currently, he is responsible for the Ukrainian delegation. He also continues his membership on the National Security Council.

Mr. Siwiec is married and has two children. On February 19, 1997, he was nominated a Head of the National Security Bureau - and again on December 23, 2000.