On Tuesday 23 July, Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, Czech) was elected Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development with 31 votes in favour, 8 against and 10 abstentions (secret ballot). Terms of office are two and a half years.
“I will work hard to improve conditions for family farmers and small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises. We have to listen to them, we have to massively cut red tape, and the whole common agricultural policy has to reflect the fact that we’ve started the dialogue on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Personally, I will focus on animal welfare”, declared Veronika Vrecionová after her election.
Daniel Buda (EPP, Romanian) was elected (33 votes in favour, 9 against and 5 abstentions) as 1st Vice-Chair of this committee, and Norbert Lins (EPP, German) as 2nd Vice-Chair (36 votes in favour, against 10 votes for the Spaniard Mireia Borrás Pabón of the Patriots for Europe Group). Éric Sargiacomo (S&D, French) was elected 3rd Vice-Chair.
The election of the 4th Vice-Chair has been postponed until September, following criticism of the committee’s gender balance.
The EPP had nominated Krzysztof Hetman from Poland, but the S&D group asked that the rule on gender equality within the bureau be respected and then requested that the vote be postponed. The EPP was against postponing the vote on the grounds that the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents had accepted a request for an exemption. After voting, it was decided to postpone the vote (23 in favour, 21 against).
Fisheries. MEP Carmen Crespo Díaz (EPP, Spanish) was elected Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Fisheries by acclamation.
Sander Smit (EPP, Dutch) was elected 1st Vice-Chair of this committee (by acclamation). Giuseppe Milazzo (ECR, Italian) was elected 2nd Vice-Chair (16 votes in favour, 5 against and 6 abstentions). Stéphanie Yon-Curtin (Renew Europe, French) was elected 3rd Vice-Chair, with 20 votes in favour. France Jamet (Patriots for Europe, French) received only 5 votes in her favour for the position of 3rd Vice-Chair. Finally, Jessica Polfjärd (EPP, Swedish) was elected 4th Vice-Chair by acclamation. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)