Brussels, 01/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Spaniard Inigo Mendez de Vigo will be the representative of the European People's Party (EPP) to the Intergovernmental Conference on the reform of the institutions (IGC). This decision was taken on Tuesday by the group's chairman, Hans-Gert Pöttering (CDU), who wrote to the President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, on the same day. The other candidate for the post, the German Elmar Brok, chairman of the committee on foreign affairs, becomes adviser to Mr Mendez de Vigo and, as such, will attend all meetings. The EPP managed to overcome its internal divisions on the appointment of its representative to the IGC, putting an end to fears within the group that the appointment could not be made in time for the opening of the IGC in Rome on Friday. After the harsh criticism of the Convention's text made by Spanish Prime Minister José Maria Aznar, several MEPs, especially German ones, supported Elmar Brok rather than Inigo Mendez de Vigo, EPP representative to the Praesidium of the Convention. Members of the group voted last week on the sidelines of the plenary session, which resulted in a tie, 95 votes each. Having planned to propose that the two MEPs share the job, which would have been unlikely to go down well with the other groups, the EPP finally asked to more time to decide.
The Chairmen's Conference last week approved German Social Democrat Klaus Hänsch as socialist representative of the EP (EUROPE of 26 September, p.6). Both representatives will take part in the ministerial meetings of the IGC. The Heads of State and Government have not yet decided if they will invite the President of the European Parliament to take part in their meetings.