Brussels, 07/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - At his first press conference as president of the Socialist group at the EP, Martin Schulz attempted on Wednesday to explain that no agreement existed for the moment with the EPP-ED group. He declared that "there is not official co-operation agreement between the EPP-ED and us". Replying to questions from journalists, he, nevertheless, replied that the "two groups that have more than 450 MEPs do need to speak to each other" adding that it was "indispensable" to find a compromise in the context of co-decision "for obtaining maximum results".
On the subject of an agreement with the new group that brings together the Liberals of Graham Watson and the troops of Romano Prodi and Francis Bayrou, mentioned several times last week, Schulz simply indicated that he had not been able to discuss with his colleague Graham Watson.
During this press conference, the new president of the Socialist group also mentioned the need to translate objectives from the Socialist election campaign: the idea of sustainability has to be at the centre of all policies, the search for peaceful solutions to prevent conflicts, the taking into account of social inspiration in order to fight for ratification of the constitution.
Martin Schulz also commented on the appointment of José Manuel Durao Barroso, member of the EPP, as future president of the European Commission. "he has already handed in his resignation to the Portuguese president before being elected at the EP". Nonetheless, he judges the candidacy interesting but has a problem with accepting the photograph of the Portuguese prime minister with George Bush and José Maria Aznar during the Azores summit. He announced that Barroso would be invited to the PES group next Tuesday but that the definitive decision on the candidacy would be during the next session in Strasbourg where the EP has to decide on ratification of the appointment of José Manuel Durao Barroso.