Strasbourg, 22/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the European Parliament elected by acclamation, 14 vice-presidents (7 from the EPP-ED, 3 PES, 2 from ADLE, 2 from Greens/EFA, 1 from GUE/NGL): the 14 candidates for the 14 posts were elected together and then a secret ballot will be organised for deciding the order of precedence. British Labour Party member Neena Gill, exclaimed that they were voting for people who they did not know and explained that she would have liked a brief description of each candidate.
Together Vice-presidents make up the Parliamentary Office, which is in charge of how the institution works internally. Two of them are in charge of relations with national parliaments, three presidents, who will in turn be responsible for the parliamentary delegations at the conciliation committee with the Council. The president can also delegate certain tasks to the vice-presidents chair the plenary; represent the parliament abroad etc.
MEPs elected in the following order: Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP-EDE, Spain) 287 votes; Antonio Trakatellis (EPP-ED, Greece) 253 votes; Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (PES, Germany) 244 votes; Edward McMillan-Scott (EPP-ED, Britain) 241 votes; Ingo Friedrich (EPP-ED, Germany) 232 votes; Mario Mauro (EPP-ED, Italy) 229 votes; Antonio Costa (PES, Portugal) 228 votes; Luigi Cocilovo (ADLE, Italy) 223 votes; Jacek Saryuz-Wolski (EPP-ED, Poland) 214 votes; Pierre Moscovici (PES, France) 209 votes; Miroslav Ouzky (PPE-DE, Czech) 189 votes; Janus Onyszkiewicz (ADLE, Poland) 177 votes; Gérard Onesta (Greens/EFA, France) 167 votes; Sylvia Kaufmann (GUE/NGL, Germany) 121 votes.