Polish promotion

Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, a member of the cabinet of Margot Wallström, has received a promotion which puts him on an equal footing, from a protocol point of view, with his former boss. On 18 December he became minister secretary of state for EU integration in his native Poland, with the task of co-ordinating relations between Poland and the EU.
Dowgielewicz, a disciple of Bronislaw Geremek, the former foreign minister turned MEP, used to be Wallström's spokesman and before that was a member of the office of Pat Cox, when the Irishman was president of the European Parliament. The toughest challenge of Dowgielewicz's job might prove to be avoiding the in-fighting between Poland's liberals.