Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (, born 13 September 1950 in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) is a Polish politician who served as

Prime Minister of Poland A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime because the only wa ...

for a year from 7 February 1996 to 31 October 1997, after being defeated in the

Parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

by the

Solidarity Electoral Action Solidarity Electoral Action (, AWS) was a coalition of political parties in Poland, active from 1996 to 2001. AWS was the political arm of the Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity trade union, whose leader Lech Wałęsa (also an AWS member ...

(AWS).

Career

Cimoszewicz was a member of the left-wing Democratic Left Alliance the leftist candidate in the Polish presidential election of 1990, receiving 9 percent of the vote. Cimoszewicz was the

from 1996 to late 1997. October 1996, he became the chairman (office in the rank of minister) of the newly established Committee for European Integration, responsible for preparing Poland for accession negotiations with the European Union. He held this position until 31 October 1997. Cimoszewicz was the Foreign Minister of Poland in the governments of

Leszek Miller Leszek Cezary Miller (Polish pronunciation: ; born 3 July 1946) is a Polish politician who served as prime minister of Poland from 2001 to 2004. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 2019–2024. From 1989 to 1990, Mill ...

(2001–2004) and Marek Belka (2004–2005). It was during this time that he, along with Leszek Miller, signed the Accession Treaty that paved way to Polish membership in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. Cimoszewicz was the speaker of the

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

(lower chamber of the Polish parliament) from January to October 2005. Cimoszewicz was for a time a candidate for the 2005 Polish presidential election; but he withdrew before the elections and promised to abandon politics. On 28 June 2005, Cimoszewicz declared his intent to run for Polish President (see: Election 2005). He instantly became a leader in the polls. He ran previously in 1990 and received 9.21 percent of the vote. In 1990,

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...

and Stan Tymiński went on to the second round. Cimoszewicz did not run in the years 1995 and 2000 giving way to his close colleague

Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served the maximum two terms as the president of Poland from 1995 to 2005. His tenure as President was marked by modernization of Poland, rapid economi ...

who twice became president. His election committee was chaired by the wife of President Kwaśniewski, Jolanta Kwaśniewska. On 9 July 2005, Cimoszewicz caused a major political uproar by refusing to testify in front of the Orlen commission. He accused seven of its eight members of being politically motivated, partial and bent on undermining his presidential bid. Constitutional experts are split on whether his move was constitutional or if Cimoszewicz broke the law. Fifty-eight percent of Poles disapproved of Cimoszewicz's behaviour before the commission. According to a poll by Rzeczpospolita, Cimoszewicz was a "hands down" leader on 5 July 2005: * Cimoszewicz: 28% * Kaczyński: 19% * Lepper: 17% * Religa: 15% * Tusk: 11% * Borowski: 5% He was predicted to win the second round, independent of who was going to reach it from second place. The election was won by

Lech Kaczyński Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010 in an air crash. The aircraft carrying ...

. Cimoszewicz returned to politics during the 2007 parliamentary election, when he won a

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

seat as an

independent candidate An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have polit ...

. He kept his senator's seat until the end of term in 2015. In 2009, he was one of two candidates to replace Terry Davis as Secretary General of the Council of Europe. However, in September 2009, the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up of ...

elected candidate Thorbjørn Jagland as the new secretary general. Since 2015 Cimoszewicz is workstream leader for the Agency for the Modernisation of Ukraine (AMU), where he is responsible for combatting corruption. In the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

Cimoszewicz was elected as the MEP for the Warsaw constituency.

On Ukraine

In May 2014 Cimoszewicz told an audience that he was unhappy with the way the Russian annexation of Crimea was handled. "The democratic West has so far not reacted in a proper way... If we do not stop that aggressive ussianpolicy at an early stage then we can face a much more difficult situation requiring more efforts taking higher risks... There is one element of that crisis which will be very difficult to be solved: the fate of Crimea."

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Cimoszewicz, Wlodzimierz 1950 births Candidates in the 1990 Polish presidential election Candidates in the 2005 Polish presidential election Democratic Left Alliance politicians Deputy prime ministers of Poland Living people Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Justice ministers of Poland Marshals of the Sejm of the Third Polish Republic Deputy Marshals of the Sejm of the Third Polish Republic Members of the Polish Sejm 1991–1993 Members of the Polish Sejm 1993–1997 Members of the Polish Sejm 1997–2001 Members of the Polish Sejm 2001–2005 MEPs for Poland 2019–2024 Ministers of foreign affairs of Poland Polish atheists Polish Round Table Talks participants Polish United Workers' Party members Politicians from Warsaw Prime ministers of Poland Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 1st Class Academic staff of the University of Białystok Columbia University alumni University of Warsaw alumni