The EPP Group’s only candidate, Germany’s Manfred Weber, is likely to be re-elected as its leader in the European Parliament on Wednesday 19 June.
The members of the Christian Democrat group, which has 190 MEPs according to Parliament’s latest count, will also elect their vice-presidents. The candidates are: France’s François-Xavier Bellamy, Poland’s Andrzej Halicki, Bulgaria’s Andrey Kovatchev, the Netherlands’ Jeroen Lenaers, Greece’s Vangelis Meimarakis, Spain’s Dolors Montserrat, Romania’s Siegfried Mureșan, Portugal’s Lidia Pereira, Italy’s Massimiliano Salini, Tomas Tobé from Sweden, Romana Tomc from Slovenia and Željana Zovko from Croatia.
According to our information, Mr Weber would have liked Poland’s Ewa Kopacz to be elected, but she was not a candidate.
On Tuesday, the EPP Group officially welcomed 14 new members to its ranks: Sander Smit and Jessika van Leeuwen (BoerBurgerBeweging) and Dirk Gotink (Nieuw Sociaal Contract) from the Netherlands, German Niels Geuking (Familien-Partei Deutschlands), Dane Henrik Dahl (Liberal Alliance), Czechs Danuše Nerudová and Jan Farský (STAN – Mayors and Independents), and Hungarians Péter Magyar, Dóra Dávid, Zoltán Tarr, András Tivadar Kulja, Eszter Lakos, Gabriella Gerzsenyi and Kinga Kollár (Tisza).
This decision does not mean that the national parties of these 14 MEPs have joined the ‘European People’s Party’, the party of the European Christian Democrats. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)