Jerzy Buzek, Former Prime Minister of Poland, a Strong Supporter of Research, Elected President of the European Parliament. (July 16, 2009)

EU President Jerzy Buzek

The Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 - 2001, Jerzy Buzek (69) has been elected the new president of the European Parliament. A graduate in chemical engineering he was appointed as a scientist in the Chemical Engineering Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice. Since 1997 he has been a professor of technical science.

 Professor Buzek has been a strong supporter of the European Research Council (ERC), the European Union grant-making body that grew out of calls, begun in November 2002, for better research funding in Europe to be based solely on merit.

ERC Vice-President Helga Nowotny of the Vienna Science and Technology Fund says: "Jerzy Buzek's election is a blessing for the future of the ERC," because she believes that as EU president, Professor Buzek could provide valuable help as ERC leaders ask the European Union for more autonomy — a step Professor Nowotny considers "absolutely necessary."

But Professor Nowotny believes that will entail "an arduous political process... We must therefore get it done [while] Buzek is in office."

ScienceInsider's, Gretchen Vogel, notes: "That doesn’t leave much time. In a compromise typical of the E.U., Buzek, a member of a center-right party, will serve 2 ½ years of the standard 5-year term before handing power over to Germany's Martin Schulz, a leader of the Parliament's Social Democrat faction", with no scientific background.