Ewa Kopacz Siblings: Getting to Know Wojciech Lis
Ewa Kopacz PHOTO/Euro Pap
Ewa Bożena Kopacz is a Polish physician and politician born on 3 December 1956 in Skaryszew near Radom.
She rose from a background in family medicine and pediatrics to become one of the most prominent figures in post-communist Polish public life.
A long-time member of the Civic Platform, she served as Minister of Health from 2007 to 2011, became the first woman to hold the office of Marshal of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014, and then served as Prime Minister of Poland from 2014 to 2015, succeeding Donald Tusk.
Since 2019 she has been a Member of the European Parliament and has repeatedly held the position of Vice-President of that institution.
Siblings
Ewa has one younger brother, Wojciech Lis, who lives in Radom.
The two grew up in a modest household in the city; their father, Mieczysław Lis, worked as a mechanic, and their mother, Krystyna (née Kozicka), was a seamstress who took in home-based work.
Wojciech has largely remained outside public life, though local media have occasionally noted his presence in Radom and past professional connections in the region.
Career
After completing secondary school in Radom, Kopacz studied medicine at the Medical Academy in Lublin, graduating in 1981.
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She specialised in paediatrics and later in family medicine, working in emergency services and outpatient clinics in the Radom area before becoming director of the local health-care facility in Szydłowiec, a post she held until 2001.
She entered politics in the 1990s with the Freedom Union and later co-founded Civic Platform in 2001.
That same year she was elected to the Sejm, beginning a continuous parliamentary career that lasted until 2019.
Appointed Minister of Health in Donald Tusk’s first government in 2007, she oversaw health policy for four years.
In 2011 she was elected Marshal of the Sejm, becoming the first woman to preside over the lower house of the Polish parliament.
When Tusk left national politics to become President of the European Council in 2014, Kopacz was chosen as his successor and served as Prime Minister until the Civic Platform’s defeat in the 2015 parliamentary elections.
She subsequently led the party for a period and, after the 2019 European elections, entered the European Parliament, where she has served as one of its Vice-Presidents, a role to which she was re-elected in 2024.
Accolades
Kopacz has received several high state decorations in recognition of her public service.
Norway awarded her the Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit in 2012.
In the same year Monaco conferred upon her the rank of Commander of the Order of Saint Charles.
Estonia later granted her the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, First Class, in 2014.
Within Poland she has also been honoured with local distinctions, including the Medal ‘Meritorious for the Town and Commune of Szydłowiec.’
