Gedeelte meningen over voorzitter Europees Parlement Buzek (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Ranging from "extremely likable" to "lacking in ideas," opinions on European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek i are varied but largely positive half way into his mandate.
The 70-year-old former Polish prime minister and Solidarity activist will in Strasbourg on Wednesday (20 October) deliver a mid-term speech outlining achievements to date and priorities for his remaining 15 months in office.
Amid a multiplication of recent pronouncements on the state of the European Union, EUobserver understands that Mr Buzek is to highlight his initiative to create a European Energy Community and his relationship-building visits to the US, China and Russia as accomplishments. He is also expected to use the speech to warn against the "costs of non-Europe," as member states and the EU institutions prepare to do battle over the EU's post-2013 multi-annual budget.
"He's a dedicated pro-European," said Socialist group leader Martin Schulz, the man set to take over from Mr Buzek in January 2012.
"I think he's a very objective president. We are very happy to have someone from eastern Europe in the role," German centre-right MEP Hans-Gert Pottering i, Mr Buzek's predecessor in the job, told this website.
German support was crucial for the Polish politician to get the post. The move forced fellow Polish centre-right MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski to step down from the number two political job in parliament, the head of the foreign affairs committee. But Mr Buzek later proved his commitment to Brussels by declining to run in Poland's snap presidential elections in June - a vote many say he could have won.
One of the best-known episodes in his tenure was British eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farrage's lambasting of EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy i. Mr Farrage said in plenary that the former Belgian leader had the "charisma of a damp rag" and that Belgium was a "non-country."
Some say that Mr Buzek, who chaired the rowdy session, should have simply switched off the MEP's mike. The Pole instead followed the letter of the rules of procedure and one week later fined Mr Farrage €3,500.
Others see it differently. Mr Buzek reportedly met with Mr Farrage before the damp-rag speech to say that eurosceptics have an equal right to be heard but asked him to use a respectful tone. "In this he went beyond what previous parliament heads have done and he subsequently felt personally let down," a parliamentary source said.
"I think he's a very nice man socially ... but as President of parliament he has acted in a very partisan way. Some are more equal than others," Mr Farrage told this website.
An engineer and a Lutheran by background, who hails from the small centre-right AWS party, Mr Buzek is said to be "his own man."
'His own man'
"He does not take direction from the [ruling Polish] Civic Platform party or from the Roman Catholic establishment - he was very neutral on stem-cell research," the parliamentary source said. He has also stood up to parliament's powerful secretary general, Klaus Welle. In one anecdote Mr Welle gave Mr Buzek a list of names to appoint to his cabinet. Mr Buzek put the list in his pocket but chose his own people.
Contacts described Mr Buzek's managerial style as "gentlemanly" and "very patient, always bringing people in, extremely consensual."
But some see this as a flaw. "I don't think he has a lot of his own opinions. He's more protocol-man rather than political," said one EU official. "Sometimes he needs to say: 'Enough is enough. Let's make a decision'," said another parliament source.
One of his trickiest jobs has been handling the parliament's relations with other EU institutions in light of its new powers under the Lisbon Treaty.
MEPs overturned an EU Council decision to share so-called Swift banking data with the US. They are currently scrapping with member states and the European Commission to get more money for the EU's 2011 budget, oversight on the European External Action Service and the right to send delegates to international talks, such as the upcoming climate summit in Cancun.
"Buzek's approach has played well with his internal audience in parliament but relations with the Council have suffered," a high-level EU contact said.
"From my point of view he did his best, but it's very difficult," Rebecca Harms, the co-chair of the Green group, added. "His staff fought together with the parliament ... Some colleagues say they are inexperienced, but then [the same critics] fail to muster significant support from governments back home."