President of the European Parliament awarded honorary citizenship

The president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, was awarded honorary citizenship on Saturday at his place of birth, Smilovice, near the north-eastern Czech-Polish border. The former Polish prime minister was born in Smilovice in 1940 and moved to Poland five years later, after the village was re-annexed by Czechoslovakia. Mr Buzek became president of the European Parliament in mid July, becoming the first person from a post-communist country to hold the position. He was the prime minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001