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European Parliament names pro-Turkey Buzek as president
Buzek, 69, won the backing of 555 lawmakers in the legislature on a first ballot vote Tuesday. His election was the first order of business of the assembly's inaugural session since an election in June at which the centre-right candidates emerged as the strongest force.
Although the post is largely ceremonial, Buzek's appointment is a symbolic gesture to the new EU member states from eastern and central Europe which often complains their views are not heard by the 27-nation union's traditional powers.
"I see my election as a sign to these countries. I also regard it as a tribute to millions of citizens of our countries who did not bow to a hostile system," Buzek told the EU Parliament in France's Strasbourg celebrating the enlargement of the EU which brought in 10 new member states in 2004 and two more in 2007, most of them from central and Eastern Europe.
The new president of the EU Parliament also supports Turkey's membership to the EU. In a past interview to the European Voice, Buzek had said that he went against the mainstream in his Christian Democrat party.
“I have become an advocate for Ankara for Turkey's membership in the EU,” he had said adding that Turkey needed to continue to adopt reforms required by the EU and then it should be a full member.
The EU Parliament's priorities include tightening regulation of the financial system to help prevent another global economic crisis and helping the EU agree a common position for talks in Copenhagen on a new global deal to limit harmful emissions.
Its approval is also needed for the EU's annual budget and for the appointment of a new European Commission, whose five-year term expires in November.
EU leaders have backed Portugal's Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as European Commission president, but his foes in the assembly have put off an approval vote until at least September.
A former member of the Solidarity trade union that ended communist rule in Poland in 1989, Buzek is the first leader from Eastern Europe to head one of the EU's three big institutions.
The European Parliament shares powers with the European Commission executive, a powerful regulatory body, and the Council of EU heads of state and government.
Its main function, shared with the other institutions, is drafting and passing laws. These powers will grow if the Lisbon treaty, intended to overhaul EU institutions and streamline decision making in the EU, is passed by all member states.
Buzek was prime minister of a coalition government in Poland from 1997-2001 and has been a member of the European Parliament since 2004, shortly after Poland joined the EU.
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