With an overwhelming majority of 97.8%, the European People’s Party (EPP) at the European Parliament has re-elected Manfred Weber from Germany as president until 2019. He has occupied this role since 2014.
The largest political group in the EP has also decided to keep nine of its previous Vice Presidents: Lara Comi from Italy, Esther de Lange from the Netherlands, Mariya Gabriel from Bulgaria, Esteban González Pons from Spain, Françoise Grossetête from France, Sandra Kalniete from Latvia, Marian-Jean Marinescu from Romania, Paulo Rangel from Portugal and József Szájer from Hungary. Jacek Saryusz-Wolski from Poland was not re-elected and was subsequently replaced by his fellow Polish national, Tadeusz Zwiefka (61 years old).
Manfred Weber was pleased that “the election of this new Presidency sends out a strong signal about the unity of our group”. He said that next year would be “12 decisive months for Europe’s future”.
Mid-December appointment of EPP candidate for EP presidency
The president of the group pointed out that the EPP would present a candidate to take over from German Social Democrat, Martin Schulz, as President of the European Parliament. He also confirmed the existence of an agreement between the EP and S&D groups on rotating the EP presidency halfway through a mandate. Although several socialists, as well as Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, have spoken in favour of keeping Mr Schulz at the head of the EP, the EPP intends to organise primaries on Wednesday 14 December to appoint its candidate for this post (see EUROPE 11638).
Mr Weber has also reaffirmed his confidence in his countryman, Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society Günther Oettinger. The latter was again the centre of a controversy following revelations from EUObserver.com about a visit to Budapest, paid for by the German businessman, Klaus Mangold, who is close to Moscow. The EPP President explained “Our political group has every confidence in Mr Oettinger. He has been working as a Commissioner for more than seven years. He is experienced and doing very good work”. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)