Tusk proposes Agnieszka Bartol, Poland's EU envoy, as new funds and regional policy minister

A new minister for EU funds

On Tuesday, 27 October 2026, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he will propose Agnieszka Bartol, currently Poland's permanent representative to the European Union, as minister of funds and regional policy. He made the announcement before the start of that day's government sitting. The post became vacant after Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz resigned earlier in October. According to TVP Info, Bartol will also hold the role of ambassador to the EU. Tusk called her "our sherpa" and said she is, not only in Poland but perhaps in Europe too, the leading specialist on European affairs, including European funds.

Consultations and the minister's first remarks

Tusk said he had consulted Szymon Hołownia, deputy speaker of the Sejm and founder of Polska 2050, whose party was allocated this ministry under the coalition arrangement. He also spoke with Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, deputy prime minister, defence minister and PSL leader, and with Włodzimierz Czarzasty, Sejm marshal and leader of the New Left. Tusk's words on the nominee were recorded as follows.

“Not only in Poland, but perhaps also in Europe, she is the most outstanding specialist on European questions, including European funds.”

At a brief press conference, Bartol described the appointment as an enormous honour and a colossal responsibility, which she said she fully understands. She described the post as the culmination of a dream, given her career spent on EU matters. She stressed the importance of the coming funding period.

“European funds will be extremely important, because everything really begins with them: the plans and the new financial framework.”

Career in Brussels

Bartol joined the government in February 2024 as secretary of state in the chancellery of the prime minister, a post she held for only a few months. In the same month she became Tusk's sherpa in EU structures, preparing the agenda and conclusions of European Council summits in closed-door meetings held before the leaders gather. In October 2024 she took over the Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU from Piotr Serafin, who had become Poland's candidate for EU budget commissioner. Her ambassadorial nomination followed in April 2025, after a dispute between the government and President Andrzej Duda over staffing of diplomatic posts was resolved. She is the first woman to hold the post of permanent representative. During Poland's EU Council presidency in the first half of 2025, she chaired six months of COREPER meetings of the ambassadors of the 27 member states. The government cited the SAFE defence loan programme, negotiated in 71 days, as one of the presidency's successes.

Reactions and the budget ahead

European Parliament and EU officials interviewed by Rzeczpospolita called Bartol an excellent official whom Brussels would miss, and one described her as practically irreplaceable. Political scientist Andrzej Zybała of the SGH school of economics told RMF24 that the choice was a good one.

“The premier gave us an expert, not a political hack, and that is a great value.”

Zybała argued that one year is too short to judge the ministry's work, because projects such as road construction run for years. The minister will oversee the negotiations and planning for the next EU financial framework, which covers 2028 to 2034. According to the EU timetable, the talks are expected to conclude by the end of 2026, with the legal acts due to be adopted in early 2027.