Strasbourg, 09/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - Who will it be from the Christian Democrats or Social Democrats, who will begin the first part of the next presidential mandate of the Committee of the Regions (CoR) according to the principle of the rotating presidency? The election on Thursday 12 February to reshuffle the five-year mandate is expected to make the result of the on-going negotiations official.
Although the names of the candidates for the presidency are already known, the negotiations are still going great guns to decide who will be in charge of the first half of the five-year mandate. The group will be represented during the plenary session election on Thursday, by Karl-Heinz Lambertz from Belgium and the EPP by Markku Markkula from Finland. These are the two main groups but the Liberals have also recently nominated Bas Verkerk as their candidate for the presidency.
Traditionally, the Committee of the Regions applies the rotating presidency principle for the five-year mandate. Although the EPP and PES groups appear to have made all their nominations, uncertainty remains regarding which of them will begin the first part of the mandate. The EPP group is the outgoing party from the current presidential mandate, which until now has been occupied by Michel Lebrun (Belgium). It would therefore be logical if the Socialists took over the reins at the beginning of the new mandate. Nothing, however, appears in the bag yet and the negotiations are still taking place between the main contenders. This is even more the case given the election of Markku Markkula as a surprise candidate for the EPP group, which subsequently outsmarted the candidacy of Michel Lebrun for re-election. Certain commentators are asking whether this last-minute nomination of Markkula can have an impact on the talks. These may come to a conclusion on Wednesday, according to one European source, the day before the official vote. This will consist of a simple majority vote (50% majority). The Committee of the Regions Bureau will also be reshuffled, which will affect the 28 vice presidents, with each of them representing a respective national delegation. (Marie-Pauline Desset)