Janusz Onyszkiewicz

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Janusz Onyszkiewicz (born 1937) is a Polish mathematician, alpinist, politician and a vice-president of the European Parliament (since 20 July 2004).

[edit] Biographical note

Janusz Onyszkiewicz was born on 18 December 1937 in Lwów (now Lviv in Ukraine). He graduated in mathematics from Warsaw University. He became a famous Polish mathematician and a himalaist in the 1970s. In the 1980s he became the spokesman for Solidarity anti-communist movement. He became somehow popular among foreign journalists because of his fluent English. After the introduction of martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981, he was arrested and interned.

After the fall of communism in 1989 Onyszkiewicz became a Member of the Polish Sejm. He served all subsequent terms from May 1989 until 2001. Initially he was a member of Obywatelski Klub Parlamentarny, then Unia Demokratyczna and Unia Wolności. 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 of Hanna Suchocka (1992-1993) and Jerzy Buzek (1997-2000).

In 1999 Onyszkiewicz was awarded the Manfred Wörner Medall by the German Minister of Defence.

On 13 June 2004 Onyszkiewicz was elected to the European Parliament as a candidate of Unia Wolności in the 10th constituency (Lesser Poland+Swietokrzyskie Voivodeships) receiving 50 155 votes (6,37%). On July 20, 2004 he was elected a Vice-President of the European Parliament. Today he is a member of Polish Democratic Party - demokraci.pl - continuation of Unia Wolności.

[edit] See also

• European Parliament Election, 2004 (Poland)