Strasbourg, 15/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - Hans-Gert Pöttering was elected (as expected) on Tuesday evening in Strasbourg as a candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament by the group he has been chairing, the EPP-ED, since 1999. The CDU delegate has been an MEP since the first direct elections in 1979 and was voted for unanimously. Joao de Deus Pinheiro from Portugal presented the candidacy of his colleague, proposed by the CDU/CSU delegation, and underlined that this was supported by all the Heads of the twenty-five delegations making up the EPP-ED group. The election of a successor to the Spanish Socialist, Josep Borrell, who will exercise his mandate for two and a half years up until the European elections of June 2009, will take place on 16 January 2007 in Strasbourg. (EUROPE 9306 on the subject of the position of other political groups on the candidacy of Pöttering).
Wilfried Martens, president of the European People's Party expressed his delight in a press release, “I look forward to receiving him next year at our EPP summit meetings as president of the European Parliament” (mg)