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STRASBOURG – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), meeting in plenary session in Strasbourg, on Tuesday elected Wojciech Sawicki to the post of Secretary General of the Assembly for a five-year term starting on February 1, 2011.

On the ballot, which was attended by 246 MPs, Wojciech Sawicki was elected by 151 votes in favour. To win the election 122 votes was needed.

Mr Sawicki was born in Warsaw (Poland) on 20 March 1955. He obtained an MSc. in Computer Science from the University of Warsaw in 1978 and started his career as a programmer, then Head of Department in the Power Industry Computer Centre (1977-1990). From 1979 to 1986, he combined this with teaching work at the Polish Academy of Sciences.

From 1990 to 1996, he held the post of Secretary General of the Polish Senate, providing political, legal and procedural advice to all statutory organs of the Senate.

He joined the Council of Europe in 1996 as Director (Deputy Clerk) in charge of the General Services Department of the Parliamentary Assembly. In that capacity, he was responsible for the interparliamentary co-operation programme and for co-ordination of committees’ activities. Since 2006 he has held the post of Director General, deputising for the Secretary General of the Assembly.

He has also been co-director of the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) since 1996.

As Chairman of the "Solidarnosc" Trade Union Section at the Power Industry Computer Centre in 1980-81, Mr Sawicki was closely involved in the "Solidarnosc" movement, which played a key role in the opposition to the regime of the People’s Republic of Poland in the 1980s.