Socialist to succeed Cox after big parties’ deal

By Martin Banks

Date: 03/06/04

A SOCIALIST MEP will be the next president of the European Parliament under a deal between the assembly's two biggest political groups, the president of the European People's Party (EPP) has revealed.

Wilfried Martens admitted his centre-right EPP and the Socialists agreed to share the presidency after next week's elections, with a Socialist occupying the post for the first two-and-a-half years and an EPP member - possibly its leader Hans-Gert Pöttering - taking over for the second half. Pöttering, whose group is expected to remain the largest, is said to prefer the second half of the legislature, as Parliament would have more powers once the European constitution enters into force - possibly in 2006.

Speculation has been rife for months that a deal was in the offing but both parties denied it, saying no decision will be taken until after the 10-13 June election. But Martens confirmed it: "A Party of European Socialists candidate will have the post for the first half of the next Parliament and the EPP the second. This will bring stability to the Parliament," he said.

A similar deal was struck between the EPP and the Liberals after the last elections in 1999, with Nicole Fontaine sharing the presidency with Liberal Pat Cox. The last time a Socialist was elected president was ten years ago with German Klaus Hänsch occupying the assembly's top job in 1994-97.

Dutch Socialist MEP Michiel van Hulten, of the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, warned that such a deal would not help the Parliament's image ahead of the poll.

"Members should have the chance to select the president themselves in a fair and open election. This is like John Kerry agreeing to stand aside for George Bush to be president for the first half of the American presidency with Kerry taking over the second half."

Front-runners for the Socialists are UK member Terry Wynn, German Martin Schulz and Austrian Johannes Swoboda.

An EPP spokesman said: "Both the Liberals and Socialists have indicated their interest in doing a deal on shared presidency. The Socialists are anxious, as they've been excluded for so long from the presidency."

Under a deal agreed between the European Parliament's two biggest political groups, Socialist MEP Wilfried Martens will succeed Pat Cox as President of the Parliament for the first two-and-a half years, and a European People's Party member will take over for the second half of the term.

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