Following the election of the President of the European Parliament the day before, MEPs appointed the 14 vice-presidents of the institution in Strasbourg on Wednesday 18 January, including five for the S&D group and four for the EPP. The logic of the voting advice was respected, with the EPP supporting the S&D, even though the EPP-S&D-ALDE 'grand coalition' is currently on ice (see other article).
10 MEPs (4 EPP, 4 S&D, 1 ECR and 1 ALDE) were elected vice-president by absolute majority in the first round (votes cast: 680; spoiled or blank ballot papers: 62; votes validly cast: 618; absolute majority: 310): these are - Mairead McGuinness (EPP, Ireland), 466 votes; - Bogusław Liberadzki (S&D, Poland), 378 votes; - David-Maria Sassoli (S&D, Italy), 377 votes; - Rainer Wieland (EPP, Germany), 336 votes; - Sylvie Guillaume (S&D, France): 335 votes; - Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland), 328 votes; - Ramón Luis Valcarcel (EPP, Spain), 323 votes; - Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D, Germany), 315 votes; - Pavel Telička (ALDE, Czech Republic), 313 votes; - Ildikó Gall-Plecz Ildiko (EPP, Hungary), 310 votes.
In the second round, Ioan Mircea Pasçu (S&D, Romania was elected with 517 votes, as was Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL, Greece), with 469 votes, Ulrike Lunacek (Greens/EFA, Austria), with 441 votes and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (ALDE, Germany), with 393 votes. The number of votes cast in the second round stood at 672 and there were 34 spoiled or blank papers (votes validly cast: 638; absolute majority: 320). In order to be elected in the first and second rounds, an absolute majority is required. There were 15 candidates at the starting line: only Indrek Tarand (Greens/EFA, Estonia), who was presented by at least 38 MEPs, was not elected.
4 vice-presidents for the EPP, 5 for the S&D and 2 for the ALDE
In July 2014, the EPP had six vice-presidents in Parliament (Italy's Antonio Tajani, Mairead McGuinness of Ireland, Rainer Wieland of Germany, Spain's Ramón Luis Valcarcel, Hungary's Ildikó Gall-Plecz and Adina Ioana Valean of Romania). As the group won the post of President, the EPP settled for four vice-president posts (Mairead McGuinness, Ramón Luis Valcarcel, Ildikó Gall-Plecz and Rainer Wieland).
The S&D had three vice-president posts in July 2014 (Sylvie Guillaume, David Sassoli and Ioan Mircea Pascu of Romania, who took over from Corina Cretu, who became Commissioner for Regional Policy the same year). On Wednesday, S&D took five posts, in line with the agreement with the other groups to make up for losing the Presidency of Parliament: Evelyne Gebhardt, Bogusław Liberadzki and the three others already holding this office (Sylvie Guillaume, Ioan Mircea Pasçu and David Sassoli).
The ALDE group bagged two vice-president posts: Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the German Liberal party (FDP), who was already a vice-president in 2014, and Pavel Telička of the Czech Republic.
Austria's Ulrike Lunacek of the Greens/EFA group stayed in her position as vice-president, as did Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL) and Ryszard Czarnecki, a member of the Eurosceptic ECR group.
The vice-presidents will stand in for the President in the exercise of his duties when required, for instance to take over the chairmanship of plenary sessions. They are also members of the Bureau of the European Parliament, the body that lays down the rules of the Parliament. It drafts the Parliament's preliminary budget and decides on matters relating to the administration, personnel and organisation of the Parliament. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)