CIMOSZEWICZ WŁODZIMIERZ b. 1950
Marshal of the Sejm of IV term (5.01.2005 -
18.10.2005)
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz was born on 13th September 1950
in Warsaw. He graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the
University of Warsaw - M.A. in 1972, Ph.D. in 1978. First, he worked as an
assistant lecturer, and later - in the years 1972-85 - as an assistant professor.
In 1980 and 1981, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship (Columbia University).
After 1985, he was an individual farmer. He served as a Deputy Prime Minister
and the Minister of Justice in the years 1993-95, as the Prime Minister in the
years 1996-97, and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the years 2001-05.
He was a member of the Socialist Youth Union in the
years 1968-73, and of the Polish Students. Association/Socialist Union of
Polish Students in the years 1968-1975. Between 1971 and 1990, he belonged to
the Polish United Workers. Party. In the years 1992-96, he was a member of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In 1999, he joined the Democratic Left Alliance.
Member of the Parliament since 1989. Between 1990 and
1991, he headed the Parliamentary Club of the Democratic Left Alliance. In the
years 1995 - 1996, he performed the function of a Vice-Marshal of the Sejm. He
presided over the Constitutional Committee in the years 1995-96; he was a
member of the Special Committee for the Self-Government in 1990, a Deputy Chair
of the National and Ethnic Minorities Committee between 1989 and 1991, and a
member of the Foreign Affairs Committee since 1989. He was also a member of the
Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in the years 1989-91, and in
the years 1998-2001, he was a councillor of the Sejmik
of Podlaskie Voivodeship.
On 5th January 2005, at the 95th sitting, he was
elected the Marshal of the Sejm of the 4th term. In 2005, he put himself
forward as candidate in the presidential election, but he withdrew on 14th
September 2005. In the parliamentary elections of 2007 and 2011, standing as an
independent candidate, he entered the Senate as the representative for the Białystok constituency. He decided not to run for the
parliament in 2015.
He was awarded honorary doctorates by the Appalachian State University and the
University of South Carolina. He also received numerous international
distinctions. He published his memoirs entitled "Czas
odwetu" ("The Time of Retaliation")
(1993).
In the 2019 election to the European
Parliament, he obtained an MEP mandate.
Updated: January 2020 .