[2] His father, Emil, a chemical engineer, was stationed with Polish troops in Britain during the Second World War, while his mother, Eryka, worked as a landscape gardener.

He returned to the government in 2000, when the prime minister Jerzy Buzek has nominated him a secretary in the European Integration Committee (Komitet Integracji Europejskiej).

In late 2004, Saryusz-Wolski's candidacy to become Poland’s first-ever European Commissioner was supported by the main Polish opposition parties but the post eventually went to the country’s Europe minister, Danuta Hübner.

He also served as vice-president and member of the national board of Civic Platform until October 2010 and as leader of the Polish delegation of centre-right MEPs until 2012.

[8] In 2010, Saryusz-Wolski joined the Friends of the EEAS, a unofficial and independent pressure group formed because of concerns that the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton was not paying sufficient attention to the Parliament and was sharing too little information on the formation of the European External Action Service.

[10] In 2015, he and Françoise Grossetête guided the EPP’s working groups on economy and environment and foreign affairs in developing options for getting the EU to speak with a unified voice on external energy security matters.

[11] In March 2017, the Polish government of Prime Minister Beata Szydło openly opposed the reelection of Donald Tusk as President of the European Council for a second two-and-a-half year term and put forward Saryusz-Wolski as a challenger.

[8] In the debate on the EU’s energy diversification and security policies, he has in the past argued that “Nord Stream 2 would be, above all, detrimental in geopolitical terms . . .