Strasbourg, 22/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - Hans-Gert Pöttering and Martin Schulz were at pains on Tuesday to state that the "technical" agreement between their groups, the EPP-ED and the PES, did not include a link between the yes vote of the EPP-ED MEPs to the election of Josep Borrell as the President of the European Parliament and the hoped-for support of the Socialists to the appointment of José Manuel Durao Barroso as President of the European Commission. A few hours later, when asked by the press, the head of the Polish delegation to the EPP-ED group, the Civic Platform (PO) MEP Jacek Emil Saryuz-Wolski said quite unambiguously: yes, it was a "general package", yes, the agreement was that the Socialists would vote for Barroso if the EPP would vote for Borrell.
As for the defection of the MEPs of the Civic Platform, who have not respected the agreement and who voted for Bronislaw Geremek (EUROPE 21 July on page 6, on the subject of Hans-Gert Pöttering), Saryuz-Wolski asserted that their support from Mr Geremek was symbolically very important and Mr Pöttering knew about their dilemma. The Polish MEP said that Pöttering was an "eminent diplomat", explaining that the president of their group had launched an appeal for unity and had explained to them what the consequences would be if Mr Borrell was not elected and if Mr Barrosso's post was not confirmed.
During the press conference, attended by Janusz Czeslaw Wojciechowski (PSL, Party of the Polish People), Mr Saryuz-Wolski presented all the Polish members of the EPP-ED group, indicating to them some of the committees where they will have a seat. He also said, with satisfaction, that they had obtained the presidency of the budget committee (which goes to Janusz Levandowski from the PO), although at first they had been told to not count too much on it. Mr Saryuz-Wolski, who was elected vice president of the parliament (in 9th place: see other article) said that he hoped that he himself could get the role of head of Parliamentary delegation for conciliation procedures with the Council. Mr Saryuz-Wolski admitted that in connection with the external relations delegations, they would like to get those involving relations with Russia, Ukraine, the USA and Nato.
Asked about divisions between the PO and the PSL on the subject of the European constitution, Saryuz-Wolski declared that the Civic Platform would soon be reaching a decision in this respect in the near future and that it supported the constitution even if it regretted its reference to Christian values and the abandoning of the Nice formula for calculating qualified majority at the Council. Mr Wojciechowski was even more categorical, explaining that the PSL was for a European constitution but was against the draft that had been presented to them, which had been adopted without sufficient reflection and which also risked being rejected in several countries.