Presidential candidates to debate

By Martin Banks

Date: 08/07/04

THE two confirmed candidates for the post of president of the European Parliament will next week go head-to-head in a debate.

The event, organized by European Voice and Campaign for Parliament Reform, features the Socialist candidate, Spaniard Josep Borrell, and Bronislaw Geremek who was yesterday (7 July) nominated as the Liberal candidate.

Both are new to the Parliament having been elected in last month's European elections. The 732-member assembly has never had a newly elected MEP as its president before, with the exception of the president appointed after the first direct elections were held in 1979.

Borrell is a former transport minister in the Spanish government and a member of the European Convention while Geremek is an ex-foreign minister in Poland and was a leading light of the Solidarity movement.

The debate takes place at the Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday (13 July). Both candidates will be quizzed by a panel of journalists and will then take questions from the audience.

It is a rerun of a similar event, which preceded Pat Cox's election as president two-and-a-half years ago.

Under a deal expected to be confirmed next week, Borrell would take the post for the first two- and-a-half years of the present legislature, with the centre-right European People's Party (EPP-ED) taking over for the second half. EPP-ED leader, Hans-Gert Pöttering is the likely candidate for the second term.

Liberal group leader Graham Watson said Geremek's candidacy is a signal that his group's members, like voters, had rejected "backroom deals that threaten to neuter" the Parliament.

"We want an open, transparent election, which enables MEPs to choose the best possible person to be our president," he said.

The candidates to be President of the European Parliament for two and a half years from July 2004 will take part in a public debate on the 13 July 2004.

• Primary Source

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