Strasbourg, 16/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 April, European Parliament President Martin Schulz bade farewell to the leaders of three of the main political groups at the European Parliament - Joseph Daul (EPP, France), Hannes Swoboda (S&D, Germany) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Greens/EFA, France). The three will not be carrying on during the next Parliament. After their last speeches in plenary, Schulz thanked them for their contribution to European construction within the European Parliament as “bridge-builders”. He also said that he hoped their life would be as rich after their mandate as it had been during it. It was still not time to thank Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium), a candidate for the post of European Commission president, who spoke ironically about his future presence in the European Parliament hemicycle - which depends on the result of the elections. (MD)