Brussels, 04/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 3 December, representatives from the EU Agricultural Cooperatives Confederation, COGECA, unanimously elected Paolo Bruni as the new president of the organisation for the period from 2010 to 2012. He will succeed Gert Van Dijk, whose term of office expires at the end of this year. Peter Vrisk (Slovenia), Christian Pees (France), Patrick McLoughlin (Ireland) and Eduardo Baamonde (Spain) were elected 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th vice-presidents respectively.
Paolo Bruni is the vice-president of Conserve Italia and President of Apo Conerpo, the EU's biggest producer organisation in the fruit and vegetable sector. Nationally, he is the president of Fedagri-Confcooperative since April 2000. He has also been COGECA vice-president since November 2005 and 1st vice-president since 2007. (L.C./transl.rt)