The Jury of the European Construction Award of the Cercle d'Economia has decided to recognize Rafal Trzaskowski, mayor of Warsaw, for his involvement and commitment to European integration, the policies he has put in place in favor of the reception of refugees , support for minority rights and the defense of the rule of law in Poland. Likewise, the jury wants to recognize with this award the key role that the cities of Europe, and of Poland in particular, have played in welcoming the millions of Ukrainian refugees who have fled their country of origin as a result of the invasion of Russia.
Born in 1972, Rafal Trzaskowski is the active Polish politician who has meant the most in recent years in the defense of European values and the rule of law in a particularly complex political and institutional context. Mayor of Warsaw since 2018, Trzaskowski has repeatedly shown his Europeanism. Already in 2019, together with his counterparts from the cities of the Visegrad Group (Prague, Budapest and Bratislava), he signed a manifesto to denounce the xenophobic nationalism of their respective governments and advocate for a "pact of free cities". With the war in Ukraine and the population exodus caused by the Russian invasion, Trzaskowski has shown himself in favor of welcoming refugees and supporting the policies put in place by the European Union. Under Trzaskowski's mandate, Warsaw has welcomed more than 300,000 Ukrainian refugees, which is equivalent to nearly 20% of its population.
Rafal Trzaskowski was the candidate of the liberal party Citizens for the Republic of Poland in the 2020 Polish presidential election, where he won 49% of the vote in the second round.
According to Teresa Garcia-Milà, president of the Jury for the European Construction Award, "Rafal Trzaskowski represents the new generation of Polish politicians who firmly believe in European values such as freedom, solidarity and respect for the rule of law. With this recognition, the relevance of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and in particular Poland, in the process of European construction is also evident. For his part, Jaume Guardiola, President of the Cercle d'Economia, remarked "the key role that Polish cities have played in welcoming more than a million Ukrainian refugees who have fled their country. Cities like Warsaw or Krakow have helped decisively in the effective and supportive management of this humanitarian crisis".
The presentation of the award to Rafal Trzaskowski took place during the Reunió Cercle d'Economia, which was hold on May 29, 30 and 31 at the W Hotel in Barcelona.
About the prize
The European Construction Award was born in 2020 with the aim of recognizing the career of those relevant personalities who have contributed, through their political, economic, cultural or social career, to the construction of Europe and the consolidation of the European union. The Cercle d'Economia award is endowed with a piece representative of the award. In 2020 it was given to Mario Draghi, recognizing his work as president of the European Central Bank, and in 2021 to Ursula von de Leyen, president of the European Commission, for her leadership in the coordinated action with all the member states before the Covid-19.
The jury for the European Construction Award is chaired by Teresa Garcia-Milà, vice-president of the Economic Circle; and they include Jaume Guardiola, president of the Economic Circle; José Manuel González Páramo, Núria Mas and Pol Morillas, members of the Board of Directors of the Economic Circle; Xavier Prats-Monné, former director general of health and food safety at the European Commission between 2015 and 2018; Nathalie Tocci, director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali; and Miquel Nadal, director general of the Economic Circle and secretary of the European Construction Award.
