Professor Jerzy Buzek (born 3 July 1940 in Śmiłowice , Silesian Voivodship) is a Polish academic lecturer and politician, prime minister of Poland in years 1997-2001 and today a Member of European Parliament, elected 13th June, 2004 with the record number of votes in whole Poland.

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.

In year's 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After the lost parliamentary elections in 2001 he has almost withdrawn from political life (taking part in European affairs debate from time to time) and returned to the scientific work, becoming the prorector of Akademia Polonijna in Czestochowa 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 (WWI and WWII).

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 Solidarnosc, 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 AWS 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 till 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 posted, basing only on popularity of his name and 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).