Brussels, 17/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - During his press conference on Thursday, UDF Presidnet François Bayrou spoke disparagingly of rumours of an EPP-ED/PES agreement on the Presidency of the European Parliament (see above): this kind of agreement would be "misleading and a confiscation". Having fought each other during the electoral campaign, they are now trying to "divide up the jobs", and try to "sew up" the election of the President of the Parliament. This is not a technical agreement, it is "political", as they "are going to vote for each other", whereas the "wealth of the European Parliament is the freedom of voting", said Mr Bayrou. When asked about the stance taken by Massimo D'Alema's Democratici di sinistra, the main component of the Uniti nell'Ulivo list, Francesco Rutelli said: "our friends in the Italian coalition wouldn't seek an agreement with conservatives". The Secretary General of the Italian Popular Party, Pierluigi Castagnetti, said: "it would be highly unlikely for, say, the Italians of the Socialist group to vote Tajani (Forza Italia) as President, or for Forza Italia members (affiliated to the EPP group) to vote D'Alema!".
As "first President of the first Parliament of the unified Europe", Mr Bayrou proposed Bronislaw Geremek (former Polish Foreign Minister and a founding member of Solidarnosc). At this point, the co-President of Greens/EFA group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, burst into the centrists' press conference to plead in favour of his candidate Michel Rocard, at least for some of the term (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7). Would a "Rocard-Geremek ticket" not be better than a "Pöttering-Bonde" ticket, he asked, seeming pleased to be the devil's advocate.
Pervenche Berès, President of the PS delegation to the Socialist group, told the press on Wednesday evening that the French Socialists were opposed to any technical agreement with the EPP-ED group. On the other hand, she confirmed that Terence Wynn (Labour, UK), outgoing president of the committee on budgets, was the candidate "in stock" of the PES. As for the Presidency of the Socialist group, Ms Berès said: "in the eyes of the French, it is important that there is good cohesion with the Germans in the PES group", and Martin Schulz would make a good group President . For the post of President of the European Commission, she would be "very pleased if Antonio Vitorino was chosen for the European Council" (see other article on PES Summit).
Pasqualina Napoletano (Democratici di sinistra) stressed the need for dialogue with "other parliamentary formations" before concluding agreements.