- Janusz Onyszkiewicz
Janusz Onyszkiewicz (pronounced|ˈjanuʃ ɔnɨʃˈkʲɛvʲitʃ, born 1937) is a Polish mathematician, alpinist, politician and a vice-president of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee (since January, 2007).
Biographical note
Janusz Onyszkiewicz was born on
18 December 1937 inLwów (now Lviv inUkraine ). He graduated inmathematics fromWarsaw University . He became a famous Polishmathematician and ahimalaist in the 1970s. In the 1980s he became the spokesman forSolidarity anti-communist movement. He became popular among foreign journalists because of his fluent English. After the introduction ofmartial law in Poland onDecember 13 ,1981 , he was arrested and interned.After the fall of
communism in 1989 Onyszkiewicz became a Member of the PolishSejm . He served all subsequent terms from May 1989 until 2001. Initially he was a member ofObywatelski Klub Parlamentarny , then Democratic Union and Freedom Union. In the spring of 1990 Onyszkiwicz and Bronisław Komorowski became the first civilian vice-ministers of defence in the communist-dominated Ministry of Defence. Later Onyszkiewicz was the Minister of Defence twice: in the cabinets ofHanna Suchocka (1992-1993) andJerzy Buzek (1997-2000).In 1999 Onyszkiewicz was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medall by the German Minister of Defence. He has often demonstrated close relations with the German government and publicly supports German interests in Eastern Europe.
On
13 June 2004 Onyszkiewicz was elected to theEuropean Parliament as a candidate of Democratic Union in the 10th constituency (Lesser Poland+Swietokrzyskie Voivodeship s) receiving 50 155 votes (6,37%). OnJuly 20 ,2004 he was elected a Vice-President of theEuropean Parliament . Today he is a member of the Democratic Party, the continuation of Democratic Union.ee also
*
European Parliament Election, 2004 (Poland)
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