Róża Thun

Róża Thun, completely Róża Maria Princess of Thun and Hohenstein, born Wozniakowska ( born April 13, 1954 in Kraków ) is a Polish journalist and since the European election 2009 Member of the European Parliament.

Biography

She is the daughter of Maria Zyberk - Plater and Prof. Jacek Woźniakowski. In the years 1972-1979 she studied English at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow; her thesis, she dedicated the plays of Oscar Wilde, as illustrations of the values ​​in the societies of the turn of the century. In the years 1976-1980 she was active in the democratic opposition Krakow: connected to the Dominican academic pastoral service " Beczka " later emerged from the part of the Student Committee of Solidarity. In the years 1978-1979 she was the speaker of this branch of the Solidarity at the universities and close associate of KOR ( Committee for the Defense of Workers ). Among other things, together with Józef Baran and Bogusław Sonik, she signed a letter to Amnesty International, in which the repression were lamenting where independent student groups in the People's Republic of Poland were exposed. During the first pilgrimage of John Paul II to Poland (June 1979), she co-organized an independent press office, which - in addition to reports on the pilgrimage - Western journalists informed about the democratic opposition in Poland and the position of the Church. She was co-organizer of the " Flying University " and numerous opposition meetings and discussions. She cared for the dissemination of dissident publications.

On September 20, 1980, she married in Krakow Franz Graf (from 1990 Fürst) von Thun und Hohenstein. She is the mother of three daughters and a son.

In the years 1981-1991 Thun lived in the Federal Republic of Germany, then in Nepal. During this time she has participated in numerous conferences in France and Germany, which concerned the situation in Poland and the socio- political situation after the imposition of martial law (13 December 1981). Among other things, they provided the western media with information on the situation of the opposition and the Church in Poland and emigrated helped activists of Solidarity. She organized humanitarian aid to Poland. She cared for the presence of oppositional Polish publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair. She was a representative of the NSZZ "Solidarity " on their first meeting after the December 13, 1981, which was held in Brussels. She worked as a translator and reviewer for the Herder publishing house.

From 1992 to 2005 she was director and later director of the Board of the Robert Schuman Foundation in Warsaw. During this time she established a network pro-European non-governmental organizations. The Foundation has organized numerous conferences, debates, but also mass events and training. Thun appeared in numerous publications, mainly on the topic of European integration (eg: wspólny dramat i Szansa in: Pamięć wypędzonych Grass, Beneš i środkowoeuropejskie rozrachunki, Wyd Wiez, Warsaw 2003, ISBN 83-88032-59-3. . ).

At times, she was a politician of the Liberal Party Unia Wolności ( Union of Freedom) at local and regional level is active.

From 2005 she was Head of the European Commission Representation in Poland.

In the European elections in Poland in 2009, she was elected for the Platforma Obywatelska with 153 966 votes in the European Parliament, where he freelanced as a member of the EPP Group in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. She is also a member of the Delegation for relations with Israel and in the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. As a deputy she is in the Committee on Culture and Education and the Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council.

In September 2010, she was involved in the founding of the Spinelli Group, which campaigns for the European federalism.

In November 2011 she was elected as a representative of the European People's Party for Vice President of the European Movement International.