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Originally Posted by NYTimes
STRASBOURG — The job brings no real power and no extra pay. But the election Tuesday of a new president of the European Parliament was a significant moment for the 27-nation European Union, and certainly for Poland.
Jerzy Buzek, a former center-right prime minister of Poland, was elected president of the assembly with 555 votes out of 713 votes cast, becoming the first politician from an East European country to hold one of the bloc’s big posts.
Never mind that the position is largely ceremonial. It carries prestige, a few perks and a lot of symbolism, and Warsaw wanted it badly.
The vote Tuesday was the culmination of months of lobbying by the Polish government, which wants to silence those who argue that the former communist nations are underrepresented in Europe’s decision making.
Before the vote, Eugeniusz Smolar, senior fellow of the Center for International Relations, a research institute in Warsaw, said that the election of Mr. Buzek would “be symbolic to many people in Central and Eastern Europe of an evenhanded — and that the old-boy network ceases to be in place.”
Poland’s minister for Europe, Mikolaj Dowgielewicz, said that “the fact that Buzek can become the president of the European Parliament is proof that enlargement of the E.U. has been a resounding success.”
Even some political opponents agree, and deputies from the Green Party had promised to back Mr. Buzek, not because they agree with his center-right politics, but to send an upbeat political signal.
Right now, the European Parliament needs some good publicity. Although it has grown in power in recent decades, turnout for elections to the assembly has declined in every vote since it was first directly elected in 1979, reaching a low of 43 percent last month.
As president, Mr. Buzek will chair parliamentary sessions. The job also involves representing the Parliament at summit meetings of E.U. leaders and international events. All official travel is paid for, and the president has the V.I.P. trappings of an international leader. The president also has a cabinet, which totals 39 members, including support staff and advisers.
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