Brussels, 25/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Speaking through Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA, France) at his last plenary in Strasbourg, the European Parliament's Greens/EFA Group urged European Parliament President Martin Schulz to resign should he be officially nominated, in Rome on Saturday 1 March, as the PES candidate to succeed European Commission President José Manuel Barroso - which is already the case. “We will ask Schulz to step down from the presidency of the European Parliament”, said Cohn-Bendit in Strasbroug on 25 February, giving the example of European Commissioner for Economics and Finance Olli Rehn, “who is going to put his post of commissioner on hold when he is a candidate”.
Schulz was chosen by “the large majority of the groups with good reason. He was the representative of all the political forces. As he is a candidate, I don't think he's schizophrenic - he won't be able to distinguish between his post and his campaign. I think it would be right for him to hand over and for one of the vice-presidents to become president”, Cohn-Bendit continued, believing that this is a matter of “political fair play”.
Some think that this is not a very serious request. “Why ask Schulz to do what we don't ask of national politicians? There are heaps of ministers campaigning and we are not asking them to resign”, said a Parliament source. Given that there is no rule governing this situation, it could be difficult to plan “because where do we start and where do we finish”, says this source, “between candidates who are already MEPs and standing for re-election, and others who are not yet MEPs?” What is certain is that, as of 1 March, Schulz will be very careful about what he says as European Parliament president, and what he says as a candidate to succeed Barroso. A specific Twitter account for “Martin Schulz candidate for the European Commission” should be started, alongside his official president of the European Parliament account.
Another factor is that, after March, Schulz will only be at the European Parliament for a very short time “as everything will stop in April”, says a source from Schulz's side. “So the Greens could have found a better angle of attack against him than this”, says the source ironically. (SP/MD/transl.fl)