Last update on 16 July. This page will no longer be updated.
Who’s who - the new MEPs
Hans-Gert Poettering (EPP, Germany), the outgoing President of the Parliament, is the MEP with the longest continuous service, having been elected in 1979. Another of the Class of ’79, Francis Wurtz, stood down at the European elections.
Emilie Turunen (Greens/EFA, Denmark), 25, will be the Parliament’s youngest member, and becomes a vice-president of her Group. When elected, she was still a student of social science and professional studies.
Ciriaco De Mita (Socialists & Democrats, Italy) is the Parliament’s oldest member (and would therefore have been in line to preside over the opening of the new parliament). He is a former Italian prime minister, having held the post from 1988-89.
Other former prime ministers in the Parliament include Jerzy Buzek (EPP, Poland – prime minister from 1997-2001), Jean-Luc Dehaene (EPP, Belgium – 1992-99), Ivars Godmanis (ALDE, Latvia – 1990-93 and 2007-09), Anneli Jäätteenmäki (ALDE, Finland – 2003), Alojz Peterle (EPP, Slovenia – 1990-92), Theodor Stolojan (EPP-ED, Romania – 1991-92) and Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium – 1999-2008). Vytautas Landsbergis, the de facto first president of newly-independent Lithuania (1990-92) won re-election and will sit in the EPP Group.
They are joined by four current European Commissioners – Meglena Kuneva (ALDE, Bulgaria), Danuta Hübner (EPP, Poland), Viviane Reding (EPP, Luxembourg) and Louis Michel (ALDE, Belgium). Ms Hübner will stay as an MEP, and Ms Kuneva is now likely to stay in the Parliament as well, with the new Bulgarian government suggesting that the current Commissioner for Consumers would not be re-nominated. Mr Michel will also remain as an MEP, but has stated that he still has ambitions on the national stage.
Sandra Kalniete (EPP, Latvia) was the Latvian commissioner in 2004, and won a seat in the Parliament for the Civic Union.
There will also be former Commission officials in the Parliament: Derk-Jan Eppink (ECR, Belgium) was a journalist, and then a member of the cabinet of Frits Bolkestein, a former Commissioner for the Internal Market. He was elected for a Eurosceptic party, the List Dedecker, as was another former Commission official, Marta Andreasen (EFD, UK), who stood for the UK Independence Party (UKIP). She was a self-styled whistleblower who went public with claims of fraud in the European Commission when she was the organisation’s chief accountant.
National government ministers elected to the Parliament include Michel Barnier (EPP, France) who was agriculture minister and seems likely to return to the European Commission, where he served under the presidency of Romano Prodi. His UMP party colleague Rachida Dati will, however, stay in the Parliament, despite appearing to be a reluctant candidate.
Monica Macovei (EPP, Romania) is another former minister that will become an MEP. As justice minister, she fought against corruption in her country.
Ms Macovei will be joined in the Romanian EPP delegation by Elena Basescu, a former model who stood as an Independent candidate when the PD-L party did not select her. The youngest daughter of the Romanian president, Traian Basescu, she has a degree in economics but has been described by commentators as ‘more interested in parties than party politics’ and is known for verbal gaffes.
Meanwhile, Barbara Matera is the most famous (and successful) example of Silvio Berlusconi’s attempt to inject some glamour into the Italian EPP delegation. Ms Matera is an actress and television presenter who won 129,994 votes in Southern Italy.
Indrek Tarand (Greens / EFA, Estonia) is another former television presenter to be elected to the European Parliament. He ran his campaign primarily on the internet, and won more than a quarter of the vote. A former advisor to the Estonian prime minister, he is also the eldest son of former Socialist MEP Andres Tarand.
Other members of political families to join the Parliament include Frédéric Daerden (Socialists & Democrats, Belgium), son of the most popular politician in the south of the country, Michel Daerden; Marine Le Pen and Jean-Marie Le Pen will continue to represent the French National Front; Jarosław Wałęsa (EPP, Poland) is the son of Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa; and Anna Maria Corazza Bildt (EPP, Sweden) is the wife of the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt.
A number of ‘mavericks’ will join the Parliament – with the French Greens alone providing José Bové, an anti-globalisation campaigner and opponent of genetically-modified organisms, and Eva Joly, a Norwegian-born anti-corruption campaigner and magistrate. Magdi Cristiano Allam (EPP, Italy) is an Egyptian-born journalist who converted from Islam to Christianity and is a noted critic of Islamic extremism. His conversion to becoming a Catholic took place during a mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI.
Timo Soini (EFD, Finland) is, somewhat unusually for a Finn, also a devout Catholic. He won the highest personal vote share in the country – around ten per cent of all votes. Also elected on the same list, but sitting in the EPP Group, is Sari Essayah, a former race walking European and World Champion turned national MP.
The Pirate Party in Sweden won one seat on the back of the Pirate Bay trial verdict on illegal distribution of music on the internet. Christian Engstrom (Greens / EFA, Sweden) will take the party’s seat, and will be joined by a second member if and when the Lisbon Treaty is ratified.
Alfreds Rubiks (GUE/NGL, Latvia) was the last communist mayor of Riga, and was imprisoned in 1991 as he tried to prevent the breakaway of the country from the USSR. He is barred from holding office in Latvia, but won a seat as an MEP.
Kathleen van Brempt (Socialists & Democrats, Belgium) is a former MEP who is returning to the institution. She was an MEP from 1999-2003 before leaving to take up a position in the Flemish government. Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallacher (ALDE, Ireland) was an MEP from 1994 to 2002, before taking a position in the Irish government. He returns to the Parliament, representing Fianna Fail. Bernd Lange (Socialists & Democrats, Germany) was an MEP from 1994-2004, focusing on industry, the environment and research policy, as well as REACH. In his time away from the Parliament, he has been a member (appointed by the Parliament) of the management board of the European Chemicals Agency, and working for the German Confederation of Trade Unions.
Kristiina Ojuland (ALDE, Estonia), a former stagiaire in the European Parliament, returns to as an MEP; Emma McClarkin (ECR, UK) was a former assistant to Roger Helmer MEP, and now joins Mr Helmer as a representative of the Tories for the English East Midlands.