Freshly elected as the new President of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, replacing Romanian Dacian Cioloș, Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné spoke, on Wednesday 20 October in Strasbourg, about several of his mandate’s priorities and the issues on the agenda of the European Council which meets this week (see other news).
He indicated that he would lead the presidency while respecting the different sensitivities within the Renew Europe group. His ambition for 2024 is to strengthen the group’s political family, so that Renew Europe becomes “the leading political family in the European Parliament”.
Mr Séjourné called for solutions to be found to tackle rising energy prices and strengthen the EU’s energy sovereignty, to tackle the shortage of raw materials and to make progress on the Pact on Migration and Asylum.
The MEP said that he also expects “clear support on 4th generation trade agreements” from EU leaders. And he asked the heads of state or government to have “a very strong word on relations with the UK”. “The interests of Europeans must be unambiguously defended and there must be a very strong condemnation of the agreements that are not being respected today” by the British government, he stressed, while France could soon announce retaliatory measures in response to the restrictions imposed by London on French fishermen’s access to British waters.
On Poland, Mr Séjourné recalled that his group is in favour of the European Parliament taking the European Commission to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to trigger the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism (see other news).
Dutchman Malik Azmani elected 1st Vice President. On Wednesday evening, the Renew Europe group reshuffled its internal governance. Malik Azmani from the Netherlands was elected as the group’s first vice president. He was chosen over Sweden’s Abir Al-Sahlani.
In addition, seven vice-presidents were appointed: Katalin Cseh from Hungary, Nicola Danti from Italy, Luis Garicano from Spain, Morten Løkkegaard from Denmark, Iskra Mihaylova from Bulgaria, Frédérique Ries from Belgium and Dragos Tudorache from Romania. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)