Brussels, 11/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 11 June, the European Parliament's Greens Group elected Philippe Lamberts (Belgium) and Rebecca Harms (Germany) as co-leaders of the group for the first half of the parliamentary term of office, the Greens Group stated on Twitter. Four candidates were in the running - including also Yannick Jadot (France) and Bas Eickhout (the Netherlands).
Harms, who was the co-leader of the group alongside Daniel Cohn-Bendit in the previous legislature, was the only woman to stand for the group's leadership. Ulrike Lunacek (Austria) was elected as the group's candidate for European Parliament vice-president. Meanwhile, Eikhout, Peter Eriksson (Sweden), Heidi Hautala (Finland), Ska Keller (Germany) and Julia Reda (Germany) were elected as vice-presidents of the Greens Group.
A decision on the final composition of the Bureau will be made next week, the Greens Group states in a press release. Currently holding 52 seats according to the latest European Parliament statistics, the Greens Group could grow larger with the Italian MEPs of Beppe Grillo's Five Star Movement (which is described populist). The MEPs are due to make a decision on this move through a referendum. On 10 June, Harms said she was “open” to discussions with the Italian party, if the referendum ended up with a call to move closer to her group.
According to the latest count, the Conservatives of the ECR Group have moved ahead of the Greens Group in the European Parliament. The ECR Group now comes in fourth position behind ALDE due to the arrival of the True Finns and the Danish People's Party last week - after their defection from Nigel Farage's EFD Group. (SP)