Brussels, 17/01/2005 (Agence Europe) -Margie Sudre MEP (France), president of the Delegation of UMP MEPs and Regional Advisers from La Réunion was voted president of the "Tourism" intergroup during the constitutive meeting on Wednesday at the EP in Strasbourg, which saw this body get up and running following the last European elections. MEPs Klaus-Heiner Lehne (EPP-ED, Germany), Toine Manders (ALDE, Netherlands) and Manuel Medina (PES, Spain) were voted vice-presidents. This intergroup brings together many MEPs of all nationalities and political tendencies and aims to analyse tourism in Europe in all its social, economic and cultural aspects, Ms Sudre pointed out. The new president pointed out the economic importance of tourism in Europe, which represents 13.5% of GDP and directly employs 9 million people. She highlighted the challenges in the future in a perspective of increased competition from other areas in the world. She emphasised that, "the European share of the market has continued to decrease over the last twenty years and it is up to the European Parliament to produce proposals to tackle these difficulties". The MEP declared that she sought to work with different actors in the sector in mainland Europe and its remote regions but also in the rest of the world with the view of elaborating a constructive strategy in the medium and long term.