Brussels, 30/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The main candidates for the Presidency of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) have been announced. It remains to be decided which group, the EPP or the PES, will start the rotation of the Presidency from 25 February.
On Friday 30 January, the EPP group elected Finland's Markku Markkula as its candidate for the Presidency of the CoR. He stands to take over from the current President of the consultative body, Michel Lebrun of Belgium. The Social Democrat candidate for the post is the German-speaking Belgian Karl-Heinz Lambertz. The Liberal group, ALDE, will announce its candidate on 5 February.
However, it already seems to have been decided that Markkula and Lambertz will share the Presidency of the CoR over the next five years, under the principle of rotation traditionally applied. Negotiations will now start between the groups to decide which of the two will take the first half of the mandate. The election of the President by the plenary session of the CoR members, on 12 February, will also confirm the groups' agreement on the order of the rotation. The new term will not start until 25 February and Lebrun will stay in place until then. (MD)