It’s official: the EPP and the Socialists & Democrats have reached a technical agreement on splitting the European Parliament presidency and the chairmanships of the committees.
For the committees, negotiations are still in progress, but the major committees - including foreign affairs, environment, industry, agriculture, budgets and legal affairs - seem likely to be split between the two biggest Groups. Keep reading…
Just before the Parliament rose for the elections, it voted a series of changes to the assembly’s rules of procedure.
One change - the stricter criteria for forming political Groups (at least 25 members from at least seven member states) are well known, but many more are not. Click here to read about twelve key changes to the Parliament’s rules and the impact that they will have on the institution.
On Wednesday 8 July at 1230 CET the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform and European Voice, supported by Burson Marsteller, will stage a debate between the contenders to the presidency of the European Parliament.
You can follow the debate by watching our webstreaming service or catch up with video highlights after the debate on TheNewEP.eu.
Burson-Marsteller Brussels will also be providing a Twitter commentary: to receive updates, log in to Twitter and follow @bmbrussels, and join the debate, by adding #epdebate to your tweets.
More details on our special EP Presidential Debate page.
The choice of committee Chairs is an important one in the European Parliament, where the committees wield a lot of power over legislation. The Chair’s role is a vital one, with functions including setting the committee agenda, representing the committee externally, and negotiating with other committee Chairs on disputed dossiers.
Over the next two weeks, mathematical formulae - plus intensive negotiations involving political Group and national delegation leaders - will decide who takes these important roles.
To find out more about how the process works - and the latest rumours about who will head which committee - visit our ‘Key positions‘ page.
Also today on TheNewEP.eu, an update of our MEP lists.
Joseph Daul, the leader of the EPP Group, has announced that Mario Mauro will stand aside and allow Jerzy Buzek to run as the EPP candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament.
Mr Daul made the announcement after talks with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister and leader of the People of Freedom party, to which Mr Mauro belongs. Keep reading…
Our list of MEPs has been updated to take account of the new ‘Europe of Freedom and Democracy’ Group. You can find the list here.
As the Groups consolidate, we have now produced another list, with MEPs arranged Group-by-Group. That list also appears on our ‘MEPs elected’ page (same link as above).
The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, has announced the creation of a new Eurosceptic Group entitled ‘Europe of Freedom and Democracy’ (EFD). The Group is an almost direct replacement for the Independence and Democracy (IND/DEM) Group, which was left with only a handful of members (mostly from UKIP) as a result of the elections. As such, the new Group also combines refugees from the old UEN Group and some non-attached members.
The Group will gather 30 MEPs from eight member states (and is therefore set to be the smallest of the established Groups). It will be dominated by the 13 MEPs from UKIP, and the nine members from the Italian Northern League (Lega Nord). Keep reading…
The ALDE Group, meeting today in Brussels, has just elected Guy Verhofstadt as leader of the Group. Mr Verhofstadt, who was prime minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008, was elected unopposed, despite indications that Diana Wallis, the leader of the UK’s Liberal Demorats in the European Parliament, was also standing for the post. (It is thought that Mrs Wallis will now retain her position as one of the vice-presidents of the Parliament.) Keep reading…
Energy policy is becoming increasingly important in the EU, in terms of its industrial, economic, environmental and foreign policy impact: go to our ‘Policy impact’ page to read the Insight by the Burson-Marsteller Brussels Energy team.
Also new on TheNewEP.eu today:
Our latest national Insight comes from Denmark, where unlike in many other countries, the Social Democrats came out on top. It can be read here.
In the political Groups, the far-left GUE/NGL Group has chosen a leader to succeed French communist stalwart Francis Wurtz, one of the few MEPs who had spent 30 years as a deputy in Brussels and Strasbourg. The new leader is Lothar Bisky, a member of the Left Party in Germany, now the biggest faction in the GUE/NGL. Mr Bisky is currently leader of the Party of the European Left. Keep reading…