EU Assembly elects ex-Polish PM as president

STRASBOURG, France — The European Parliament elected Jerzy Buzek as its president Tuesday, making the ex-Polish premier and pro-democracy activist the first easterner from a former Communist country to head a major EU institution.

A leading member of the Solidarity trade union that sank Communism in Poland in the late 1980s, Buzek won 555 of the 644 valid votes cast — a first-ballot majority at the inaugural session of the new 736-member EU assembly. His nearest opponent, Swedish Green Party member Eva-Britt Svenson, won 89 votes.

Many likened Buzek’s election to a final healing of Europe’s old East-West division — as did Buzek.

“Once upon a time I hoped to be a member of the Polish parliament, in a free Poland,” the center-right politician said. “Today I have become the president of the European Parliament, something I could never have dreamed of.”

Buzek, 69, drew a standing ovation from an assembly he will lead for two-and-a-half years. A still unnamed socialist will succeed him for the next two-and-a-half years, under a tradeoff between the left and the right in the EU assembly.

Buzek’s election reflects conservative gains in the 27 EU countries and comes as the EU is suffering from a deep crisis of confidence. The June 4-7 EU elections saw a record low turnout of under 44 percent, reflecting widespread disenchantment with the bloc, especially its expansion plans.

If Irish voters ratify a long-delayed EU reform treaty in an Oct. 2 referendum, the parliament will gain significant legislative powers.

But should they repeat their ‘no’ of a 2008 referendum, the assembly will remain a talk shop with less say over the EU budget and without the ability to co-write EU laws and international accords with EU governments — powers foreseen in the reform treaty.

The EU leaders signed the reform treaty in 2007. Ireland is the last to ratify. Buzek said it must be implemented if the EU is to adequately represent Europe’s aspirations on issues ranging from environmental protection to job creation to relations with Russia and other neighbors.

The new assembly has 28 independent members — including far-right newcomers from the Netherlands, Austria, Britain and Hungary — who are as ardently anti-EU as the 29 members of the European Freedom and Democracy group led by Nigel Farage of Britain’s UK Independence Party.

Farage criticized the inaugural session, which opened with the hymn ‘Ode to Joy’ from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

“You are pushing ahead with all the trappings of statehood,” he told Buzek.

He cautioned him not “to turn the EU into the union you fought so hard against” in communist Poland.

The new assembly held off on endorsing Jose Manuel Barroso for another five-year term as European Commission president. While Barroso has the support of the EU leaders, the assembly delayed its approval, hoping for an alternative to the conservative ex-Portuguese premier.

Buzek was a Solidarity activist. After the demise of Communism, he was a right-wing premier in Poland from 1997-2001. He is credited with bringing critical reforms to the health and pension systems and remains well-regarded by many Poles.

He entered the European Parliament in 2004 after Poland, seven other east European nations, Malta and Cyprus joined the bloc that year.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski hailed his appointment Tuesday as a “symbolic overcoming of the divisions between the old and new countries” of the European Union.