Poland chaired OSCE, and Bronisław Geremek served as Chairperson-in-Office. In March 1999, he signed the treaty under which Poland joined NATO. European Parliament Deputy In the election to the European Parliament in June 2004, Geremek was elected as a candidate of the Freedom Union, winning the largest number of votes in Warsaw. In the European Parliament he was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. He was a believer in the idea of Europe, though he felt that there is a need to create a clear European identity and the need for people to believe in the benefits that Europe can bring to them - not just as nations, but also as individuals. In April 2007, Geremek refused to declare that he had never collaborated with the Communist secret service, which he was being asked to do under a new vetting law. In May 2007, the Constitutional Tribunal of the Republic of Poland rejected most of the new vetting law, including the clause that would have made it mandatory for nearly 700,000 Poles to sign declarations certifying that they had never collaborated with the secret services under the old regime. From 2006 to 2008, he was president of the Jean Monnet Foundation for Europe. He was a supporter of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly. Honours 2004: Order of the Three Stars 2002: Order of the White Eagle Knight Grand Cross in the Order of Leopold II 2002: Knight Grand Cross of Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana 2000: Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 2002: Pour le Mérite Officer in the Legion of Honour 1999: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement 1998: Karlspreis (Charlemagne Award) of the city of Aachen 1997: Commander's Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas Grand prix de la francophonie of the Académie française Death Geremek died on 13 July 2008, in a car accident on the then national road 2 (nowadays national road 92) near Lubień in Nowy Tomyśl County, when the car he was driving hit an oncoming van on the opposite lane, due to Geremek falling asleep behind the wheel. He was granted a state funeral, held in Warsaw in the Cathedral of St John. It was attended, among others, by