Jacek Emil Saryusz-Wolski (born 19 September 1948 in Łódź) is a Polish diplomat and PiS (Law and Justice) politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since June 2004. He served as Vice President of the European Parliament (2004–2007). Saryusz-Wolski is chairman of the Executive Board of the “Foundation College of Europe”, in charge of the Natolin campus of the College of Europe. Early life and education Saryusz-Wolski comes from a family of the Jelita coat of arms. His father, Emil, a chemical engineer, was stationed with Polish troops in Britain during the Second World War, while his mother, Eryka, worked as a landscape gardener. He graduated from the First High School of "Nicolaus Copernicus" in Łódź and he obtained a degree in economics from the University of Łódź. He also completed postgraduate studies at the Centre Européen Universitaire in Nancy, France. In the 1970s he was a lecturer on the European Communities at the University of Łódź and in the 1980s he was an assistant professor in the Department of Socialist Political Economy of the University of Łódź. At the turn of the 1980s and 1990s led the Center for European Studies at the University of Łódź. Political career Saryusz-Wolski was nominated the first Polish plenipotentiary for European integration and foreign aids (pełnomocnik ds. integracji europejskiej i pomocy zagranicznej) when this office was created in 1991 by the prime minister Jan Krzysztof Bielecki. He held this position till 1996, despite the frequent government changes. He returned to the government in 2000, when the prime minister Jerzy Buzek has nominated him a secretary in the European Integration Committee (Komitet Integracji Europejskiej). Jacek Saryusz-Wolski played an important role in the negotiations in Nice in 2000. In 2001, he unsuccessfully ran for the Polish Senate on behalf of Blok Senat 2001. Member of the European Parliament Saryusz-Wolski was elected an MEP at the European Parliament election on 13 June 2004, as a candidate of Civic Platform, in the constituency #6 (Łódź Voivodship) receiving 66,589 votes (that is 16.92%, the best result in the region). On 20 July 2004 he was elected as one of the Vice Presidents of the European Parliament for the EPP, and was at the position till 16 January 2007. He was re-elected in 2009 and 2014. Since first joining the European Parliament, Saryusz-Wolski has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which he