Strasbourg, 12/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - At the start of the plenary session on Monday 12 December, the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, officially introduced the 17 new members of the European Parliament. This increase in numbers was provided for by the Treaty of Lisbon and comes further to a decision by the European Council of June 2010, authorising the arrival of 18 additional MEPs from 12 Member States.
The 17 new MEPs come from Austria (Josef Weidenholzer- S&D and Ewald Stadler- Independent), Bulgaria (Svetoslav Hristov Malinov- EPP), Spain (Vicente Garces Ramon and Dolores Garcia-Hierro Caraballo- S&D, Eva Ortiz Vilella and Salvador Sedo i Alabart- EPP), France (Yves Cochet -Greens/EFA and Jean Roatta-EPP), Italy (Giulio Trematerra-EPP), Latvia (Karlis Sadurskis-EPP), Malta (Joseph Cuschieri- S&D), Poland (Arkadiusz Tomasz Bratkowski-EPP), Slovenia (Zofija Mazej Kukovic-EPP), Sweden (Amelia Andersdotter-Greens/EFA and Jens Nilsson- S&D) and the United Kingdom (Anthea McIntyre- ECR).
The final MEP, from the Netherlands, will join them once the Dutch government has notified the European Parliament of his or her name. The Parliament will then have 754 members until the European elections of 2014. (CG/transl.fl)