Jerzy Buzek position held member of the European Parliament
Jerzy Karol Buzek [ˈjɛʐɨ ˈbuzɛk] (listen) (born 3 July 1940) is a Polish politician and Member of the European Parliament from Poland. He has served as Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001, since being elected to the European Parliament in 2004, he served as President of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2012. He is married to Ludgarda Buzek and is the father of Polish actress Agata Buzek.Professional career
In 1963 Jerzy Buzek graduated from the Mechanics-and-Energy Division of the Silesian University of Technology, specialising in chemical engineering. He became a scientist in the Chemical Engineering Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 1997 he has been a professor of technical science. He is also an honorary doctor of the universities in Seoul and Dortmund among others.From 1997 to 2001, Buzek was a coalition Prime Minister of Poland.
In 1998 he became the first laureate of the Grzegorz Palka Award and was nominated European of the Year by the European Union Business Chambers Forum.
In 1998 he was named 'Person of the Year' by the influential Polish political weekly Wprost. He won the award for the second time in 2009. On receiving the award again, as President of the European Parliament, he stressed that he was the first winner to be honoured for his work beyond the borders of Poland.He was the first Prime Minister of the 3rd Republic of Poland to serve a full term.Jerzy Buzek was the first Lutheran Prime Minister in the history of Poland.
After losing the parliamentary elections in 2001, he stepped back from political life and focused more on his scientific work, becoming the prorector of Akademia Polonijna in Częstochowa and professor in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Opole University of Technology in Opole.
His return to political life in 2004 saw him gain the largest popular vote in Poland as the member for Katowice to the European Parliament standing for the Civic Platform.
Whilst President of the European Parliament, on 30 March 2011, he was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Institution of Chemical Engineers at a meeting of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering (EFCE) in Brussels, Belgium.Political career
In the 1980s, Buzek was an activist of the anti-communist movements, including the legal (1980–1981 and since 1989) and underground (1981–1989) Solidarity trade union and political movement in communist Poland. He was an active organiser of the trade union's regional and national underground authorities. He was also the chairman of the four national general meetings (1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th) when the Solidarity movement was allowed to participate in the political process again.Jerzy Buzek was a member of the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) and co-author of the AWS's economic program. After the 1997 elections he was elected to the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament, and was soon appointed Prime Minister of Poland. In 1999 he became the chairman of the AWS Social Movement (Ruch Społeczny AWS) and in 2001 he became the Chairman of the Solidarity Electoral Action coalition.
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