Wilfried Martens prime minister, described him as a "true statesman and one of the fathers of federal Belgium". Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, paid tribute to him as a "statesman of Belgium, Europe and an outstanding leader of European Parliament". Jerzy Buzek, EPP MEP and former prime minister of Poland, described him as "irreplaceable". The EPP think tank Centre for European Studies has been renamed after him, now being the "Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies", a decision taken during the EPP Congress in Dublin held on 9 March 2014. He received an Official State funeral, which was attended by
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski 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". 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