Jerzy Buzek

Professor Jerzy Karol Buzek (pronounced [ˈjεʒɨ ˈkarɔl ˈbuzεk], born 3 July 1940 in Smilowitz, Germany (now in the Czech Republic)^[1] is a Polish academic lecturer and politician, prime minister of Poland from 1997-2001 and today a Member of European Parliament, elected 13 June, 2004 with the record number of votes in whole Poland.

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Professional career

In 1963 Jerzy Buzek graduated from Mechanics-and-Energy Division of the Silesian Technical University in Gliwice specializing in chemical engineering. He became science worker in the Chemical Engineering Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice (Instytut Inżynierii Chemicznej Polskiej Akademii Nauk w Gliwicach). Since 1997 he is a professor of technical science. He is also a honorary doctor of the universities in Seoul and Dortmund.

Between the years 1997-2001 he was the prime minister (see below). In 1998 he became a laureate of the Grzegorz Palka Award, was nominated the European of the Year by the European Union Business Chambers Forum and Man of the Year of Wprost (a Polish political weekly).

After losing the parliamentary elections in 2001 he has almost withdrawn from Polish political life (although was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2004) and returned to the scientific work, becoming the prorector of Akademia Polonijna in Częstochowa and professor in the Mechanical Division of the Technical University of Opole in Opole (Wydział Mechaniczny Politechniki Opolskiej).

Political career

Jerzy Buzek comes from a famous Buzek family, present in Polish politics since the 20 years of free Poland between the World Wars (World War I and World War II).

In the 1980s Jerzy Buzek was an activist of the democratic anti-communist movements, including the legal (1980-1981 and since 1989) and underground (1981-1989) Solidarity trade union and political movement in the communist Poland. He was active organizer 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 Solidarity was allowed to act legally.

Jerzy Buzek was a member of the experts team of Solidarity Electoral Action (Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność, AWS) and co-author of AWS's economic programme. In the 1997 elections he became a member of Sejm, lower house of the Polish Parliament, and soon was appointed the prime minister of Poland (for this time he has suspended his Solidarity trade union membership). In 1999 he became the chairman of the AWS Social Movement (Ruch Społeczny AWS) and in 2001 the chairman of the whole Solidarity Electoral Action coalition.

Jerzy Buzek's government

In years 1997-2001 he was the prime minister of Poland, first of the right-centrist AWS-UW coalition government until 2001, and then of the rightist AWS minority government. His cabinet major achievements are 3 significant political and economic reforms: the new local government and administration division of Poland, reform of the pension schemes system and reform of the medical services system.

Polish MEP with record number of votes

On 13th June, 2004 Jerzy Buzek was elected Member of European Parliament from Silesian Voivodship constituency, without printing of any posters, basing his election only on popularity of his name and on direct contact with the voters. He received the record number of votes in the whole Poland: 173.389 (22,14% of the total votes in this region).

His party is the Platforma Obywatelska which joined the European People's Party and sits now on the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

Buzek is a substitute for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, a member of the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and a substitute for the Delegation for relations with the countries of Central America.

Timeline of career

Education

• from 1997 to 2001: Professor of technical sciences, actively engaged in public work, Prime Minister of Poland
• Honorary doctorates of the Universities of Dortmund , Seoul , Süleyman Demirel University(Isparta)
• University lecturer of long standing at Opole, Gliwice and Częstochowa, researcher at the Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice
• 1972: Research stay at the University of Cambridge

Career

• 1992-1997: Representative of Poland at the International Energy Agency - Programme of Greenhouse Gas Effect
• 1996: Organiser and chairman of an international network of 19 institutions working on energy and environmental protection
• Author of some 200 research papers, over a dozen rationalisations and three patents in the fields of environmental protection, power and process engineering
• 1981: Member of the independent, self-governing trade union 'NSZZ Solidarność', Chairman of the I National Congress of Delegates of 'Solidarność' in
• 1981: Active in the Solidarność underground structure after
• 1997: Elected as a Member of the Polish Parliament in
• As Prime Minister, in 1999, took Poland into NATO and prepared the country for integration into the European Union (including decentralisation of the State - consolidation of the role of local self-government)
• In 1998, began accession negotiations
• 1999: Represented the Social Movement of Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) in the PPE-DE
• 1999: Established the annual Pro Publico Bono prize for the best national civic initiatives
• Set up the Family Foundation together with his wife (1998), having gained greater understanding of the meaning of help for the needy after their experiences with the battle for the life of their own child

See also: European Parliament election, 2004 (Poland)

Notes

• ^  Smilovice (Śmiłowice) village lies in Zaolzie. This territory was annexed in 1938 by Poland and after 1939 German Invasion of Poland it became a part of Nazi Germany. After World War II it became again a part of Czechoslovakia.