Former Polish PM elected Euroepean parliament president

A leading member of the Solidarity trade union that sank Communism in Poland in the late 1980s, Buzek won 555 of the 644 valid votes cast — an outright majority in the first ballot at the inaugural session of the new 736-member EU assembly.

His nearest opponent, Swedish Green Party member Eva-Britt Svenson, won only 89 votes.

Many political leaders in the assembly likened Buzek's election as a final healing of Europe's old East-West division, as did Buzek, a center-right politician.

"Once upon a time I hoped to be a member of the Polish parliament, in a free Poland," he said. "Today I have become the president of the European Parliament, something I could never have dreamed of."

Buzek, 69, called his election "a measure of Europe can change."