More positions decided, and more party games
A number of new Group positions have now been decided in the EP - and there has already been a departure from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Group.
According to reports in Finland, Hannu Takkulu (right; photo: European Parliament) will not join the ECR, but will remain with his Centre Party colleagues in the ALDE Group. The ECR would now have representatives from just seven member states - the bare minimum to form a Group.
If the ECR loses another member before the constituent session, it would not be able to form; however, Parliament sources believe that if a member were to leave after the official formation of the Group on 14 July, the ECR could hobble on to the mid-way point of the Parliament - with its leader maintaining a valuable seat in the Parliament’s Conference of Presidents. Only then would the Group, should it not have a sufficient number of member states represented, have to fold.
Meanwhile, the EPP Group has selected its vice-presidents. The list is: Vito Bonsignore (Italy), Rumiana Jeleva (Bulgaria), Othmar Karas (Austria), Ioannis Kasoulides (Cyprus), Marian Jean Marinescu (Romania), Jaime Mayor Oreja (Spain), Paulo Rangel (Portugal), József Szajer (Hungary), Manfred Weber (Germany) and Corien Wortmann-Kool (the Netherlands).
Sometimes it is who is not included in a post-election list that is more interesting than who actually is. With 60% of the EPP group now made up of German, Italian, French, Polish and Spain MEPs, the EPP’s list of president and vice-presidents reflects all the leading national delegations that make up the EPP group, with the notable exception of Poland.
This is as clear and strong a signal than has been seen up until now that former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek will be the EPP’s candidate for the position of European Parliament President. This of course needs to be confirmed by an official announcement in the run up to an EP presidency debate on 8 July and the subsequent vote in the Parliament’s plenary. However, surely bets are no longer likely to be taken, at least as far as the EPP candidate is concerned.
The ALDE Group will vote on 30 June on a successor to Graham Watson as Group president. Mr Watson is hoping to be elected President of the Parliament for the second half of the term - and ALDE support for an early confirmation of José Manuel Barroso as Commission president, in the July plenary session, would appear to hinge on a deal with the EPP.
Within the Liberal Group, it is likely that Diana Wallis (UK) or Guy Verhofstadt, a former Belgian prime minister, will take the presidency. Only Mrs Wallis has, so far, formally declared her interest in the post.
Following the election of Martin Schulz as Group president yesterday, the PASD has named its vice-presidents and their responsibilities as: Maria Badia i Cutchet (Spain- responsibility for communications and public relations); Monika Benova (Slovakia - Europe of citizens); Véronique De Keyser (Belgium - human rights, development and international trade); Stephen Hughes (UK, economic and social policy); Stéphane Le Foll (France, budget and cohesion policy); Adrian Severin (Romania - external policy and defence); Giancarlo Susta (Italy - agriculture and fisheries); Hannes Swoboda (Austria - parliamentary affairs and relations with international organisations); and Marita Ulvskrog (Sweden - sustainable development and competition).
Edit Herczog (Hungary) will be the Group’s treasurer, and Robert Goebbels (Luxembourg) and Jutta Haug (Germany) the two auditors.
As for the French Socialist delegation, Catherine Trautmann will be its leader. The French delegation has, like the French Socialist Party itself, struggled to mend the recent fractures of the leadership contest between Ségolène Royal, Martine Aubry (the eventual winner) and Benoit Hamon.
Finally, as expected, Danny Cohn-Bendit (France) remains as co-leader of the Green/EFA Group. Rebecca Harms (Germany) replaces Monica Frassoni, who did not gain re-election, as co-president of the Group.
Meanwhile Frieda Brepoels (left; photo: European Parliament), a member of the New Flemish Alliance (NVA) has left the EPP Group to become a vice-president of the European Free Alliance, and so will sit within the Greens/EFA Group.
Mrs Brepoels’ party was in an electoral cartel with the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V - in the EPP Group) in 2004, but ran as a separate entity in the 2009 elections.
Lawrie McLaren and David O’Leary