The European Parliament’s new President and more
José M. de Areilza
November 13, 2006
On January 2007 the European Parliament will elect a new President, according to the agreement to split the presidency reached back in 2004 by the two largest political groups, socialist and christian-democrats. Hence, in some weeks Josep Borrell, a stronger than expected leader, will finish his term and Hans Gert Poettering, now Chairman of the EPP-ED group, will take over. Mr. Poettering has been a member of the EP since 1979 and knows inside out this institution. Yet in recent important debates like the one on Basque terrorism he has struggled to bring together his heterogeneous group of 264 MEPs, the biggest one around. In any case, he is respected as an independent thinker and is likely to push for adoption of parts of the Constitution on fundamental rights and democratic vales, as well as a rethinking of planned enlargemnets, especially with regards Turkey.
An important question inside the European Popular Party group is who will be the new Chairman when Hans Gert Poettering leaves to take at the helm of the Parliament. Most German MEPs have turned to Iñigo Méndez de Vigo as the obvious choice. Mr. Méndez de Vigo is a Spanish MEP and political heavyweight, who has a most distinguished record as constitutional and legal expert. For instance, he represented the EP at the Praesidium of the European Convention and has been the rapporteur of the EPP on every important EU institutional question in the last ten years. Mr. Méndez de Vigo clearly outshines many of his Spanish colleagues at the EPP and that might be his problem to be promoted, since it is well known that mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself.
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