Brussels, 15/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 13 October, several European Parliament delegations elected their leaders for relations with third countries. The others will do this on Thursday 16 October.
Tonino Picula (S&D, Croatia) and Anneliese Dodds (S&D, UK) were thus elected head of delegation for relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and head of delegation for Montenegro respectively. Alojz Peterle (EPP, Slovenia) takes the leadership of the delegation for relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic for Macedonia (FYROM), and Eduard Kukan (EPP, Slovakia) was re-elected as head of delegation for cooperation with the Serbian Parliament. The new heads of delegation for Belarus and parliamentary cooperation with Russia are Bogdan Zdrojewski (EPP, Poland) and Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria). Manolis Kefalogiannis (EPP, Greece) takes the leadership of the delegation for relations with Turkey. The delegation for Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and the European Economic Area has no new leader yet, however, due to the rejection of the only candidate for this role, Morten Messerschmidt (ECR, Denmark).
Pier Antonio Panzeri (S&D, Italy) was re-elected as leader of the delegation for Maghreb, and Marisa Matias (GUE, Portugal) and Martina Anderson (GUE, UK) take the head of the delegations for relations with the Mashreq and Palestine respectively. Michèle Alliot-Marie (EPP, France) was elected leader of the delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula, and David Campbell Bannerman (ECR, UK) was elected leader of the delegation for relations with Iraq.
On the Americas side, Bernd Kölmel (ECR, Germany) will chair the delegation for relations with Canada. His compatriot, Constanze Krehl (S&D, Germany), will take the leadership of the delegation for relations with Chile, Teresa Jimenez-Becerril Barrio (EPP, Spain) will take the leadership of the delegation for relations with Mexico, and Paulo Rangel (EPP, Portugal) will head the delegation for relations with Brazil. Luis de Grandes Pascual (EPP, Spain) becomes head of the delegation for relations with the Andean community, and Francisco Assis (S&D, Portugal) takes the leadership of the delegation for relations with Mercosur.
Johannes Cornelis van Baalen (ALDE, Netherlands) was elected leader of the delegation for relations with South Africa, and Michael Gahler (EPP, Germany) leader of the delegation for relations with the Pan-African Parliament.
Lastly, Michael Theurer (ALDE, Germany) and Petr Jezek (ALDE, Czech Republic) take the leadership of the delegations for relations with Australia and New Zealand, and Japan respectively. Jean Lambert (Greens/EFA, UK) was re-elected leader of the delegation for relations with South Asia. (CG)