Brussels, 13/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - Unsurprisingly, the head of the European Parliament's EPP Group Joseph Daul was elected president of the European People's Party (EPP) at a political assembly on Tuesday 12 November. Daul, who obtained 112 votes out of 124, succeeds former Belgian prime minister Wilfried Martens. Martens had presided over the EPP for 23 years and died on 9 October.
“It is a great honour to receive this mandate and to be entrusted by the delegates from member parties, member associations, and political groups to lead the party going forward - especially at a time of such important challenges as the European elections of May 2014. I will do my best to continue the extraordinary work of Wilfried Martens, whose leadership and commitment has made the EPP the largest and most influential party in Europe”, Daul stated.
Daul says his presidency will be organised around three principles - “unity, continuity and responsibility. I will put all my energy towards convincing citizens to vote for a Europe that will work for them”. He also reiterated the EPP's commitment, taken at the congress in Bucharest, to launch an EU-wide campaign led by “our common candidate, who will be chosen at the Dublin congress on 6-7 March 2014”, he said, though doubts have arisen about the party's intentions.
Daul, who became acting president of the EPP the day after Marten's death, is “the first French national to preside over the EPP since the creation of this European political party in 1976”, Jean-Pierre Audy (EPP, France) was delighted to announce in a press release. “The representatives of all the national member parties of the EPP in Europe made the choice to elect a man motivated by a deep European conviction. His spirit of consensus and his experience at the head of the EPP Group at the European Parliament for seven years have enabled him to garner all the votes”, Audy continued.
President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, who is also the Party of European Socialists' candidate for head of the European Commission, also congratulated Daul on Twitter - “a man of experience, honest and deeply European” (our translation). Daul was born in Strasbourg in 1947 and was a cattle farmer and agricultural campaigner before coming to political life. (SP/transl.fl)