Brussels, 10/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - Joseph Daul, a member of the European Parliament since 1999 and President of the Parliamentary committee on agriculture since 2002, was elected President of the Christian-Democratic groups of the European Parliament (EPP-ED) on Tuesday 9 January, by 134 votes out of 249 cast. He beat Sweden's Gunnar Hökmark, who had the support of 115 MEPs. Expressing his joy and satisfaction to be presiding over the "most influential" political group at the EP (with 277 MEPs), Mr Daul paid tribute to the election itself. "Europe needs to debate its major challenges for the future, with no taboos or preconceived ideas, but yet without denying its past. Our political group is determined to make more and more of a mark on these debates", he declared. Having met José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, on Tuesday evening, he will be in Berlin this Thursday to discuss the German priorities for the European Union in the first half of 2007 with Chancellor Angela Merkel: the Constitutional Treaty, energy and enlargement. On the inter-institutional issue in particular, "Europe needs to be able to decide effectively and transparently; this is not a luxury, it is a political obligation", said Mr Daul.
The new President of the EPP-ED group spoke of the "vast programme" of his mandate. This will be the subject of some 10 "thematic conventions", which will focus on "security, employment, competitiveness, solidarity, energy, the environment, global warming, food safety and the resources of the EU". On agricultural issues, he pointed out that he had "always worked in favour of change to the common agricultural policy" and in favour of a "multilateral agreement at the World Trade Organisation" in this field. Nonetheless, we must not "break everything now", warned Mr Daul, who is also a farmer by trade. He added that the key question which must now be answered- particularly within the framework of discussions in 2008 on changes to be made to the EU budget- is to ensure that Europe has "food safety". He went on to add that "we must be able to say in 2009 what will happen in 2013".
Mr Daul, a "practising Catholic", did not say that Europe was a Christian club, but instead that "these Christian values were made to live together in harmony" with all areas of European society. On enlargement, he takes the view that "Europe is not ready to be enlarged any further at the moment, and nor is Turkey (...) to join the EU" and takes position in favour of a "special privileged agreement" with Ankara. First of all, let us see "how, institutionally, we are able to cope with an EU of 27 members", he suggested.
When asked about the vague possibility that the British Conservatives and certain Czech MEPs will leave the group in 2009, the EPP-ED President said that he would do all in his power to ensure that these people "are indeed included" in the EPP-ED political formation. Without hiding the fact that he is of the pre-1968 generation, he also voiced his hopes that he would be able to work with his colleagues from the "new Europe", whose support went largely to Mr Hökmark.
Are you personally attached to the Parliament's seat in Strasbourg? Mr Daul expressed no fundamental opposition to discussing the seat of the European Parliament. "Let us open up the treaties", he explained, but "Strasbourg will have a right" to house a European institution and if it is no longer the EP, "we can swap with that of the Court of Justice of the EU or the European Investment Bank". On the new extreme right-wing political group, the French MEP pointed out that the members of the European Parliament it is made up of were people who had been "democratically elected by our citizens". "As long as they respect the rules, I will respect them, but this does not mean that I support them or want them on board", he added, going on to state that the situation "gives us cause to think and to work", with the media in particular. (mb)