Parliament names its agenda-setting Bureau

By Martin Banks

Date: 22/07/04

MEMBERS of the European Parliament have this week taken their seats in the assembly's seven political groups and elected their leaders, who are set to shape Parliament's agenda over the next five years.

At its first plenary session following last month's European elections, MEPs on Wednesday (21 July) put the finishing touches to the composition of its influential Bureau.

The 15-member Bureau, or inner circle, consists of the assembly's president and 14 vice-presidents.

In addition to the newly elected President Josep Borrell, a Spanish Socialist, the Bureau now includes seven members from the European People's Party (EPP-ED), Parliament's largest political group, three Socialists (PES), two from the new Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and one each from the Greens-European Free Alliance and the left-wing GUE group.

It includes three deputies from new member states, two Poles and one from the Czech Republic.

Three of its members, Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP-ED), Ingo Friedrich (EPP-ED) and Gérard Onesta (Greens) were members of the Bureau in the previous Parliament.

The rest are new.

The full list of Parliament's vice-presidents is: EPP-ED - Vidal-Quadras (Spain), Antonios Trakatellis (Greece), Friedrich (Germany), Mario Mauro (Italy), Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (Poland), Edward McMillan-Scott (UK) and Miroslav Ouzky (Czech Republic); PES: Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (Germany) António Costa (Portugal), Pierre Moscovici (France); ALDE: Luigi Cocilovo (Italy) and Janusz Onyszkiewicz (Poland); Greens: Gérard Onesta (France), and; United Left: Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (Germany).

The first vice-president of the Parliament is Vidal-Quadras. Like Borrell, he is a Catalan.

The first major task facing the new Bureau will be to deal with the controversial travel expenses system, which is currently open to fraud.

The old Bureau failed to do a deal on this, putting talks on hold until the Autumn.

MEPs also voted to elect five quaestors, who are in charge of the daily running of the Parliament.

The quaestors are: Genowefa Grabowska (PES, Poland), Astrid Godelieve Quisthoudt-Rowohl (EPP-ED, Germany), Astrid Lulling (EPP-ED, Luxembourg), Jim Nicholson (EPP-ED, UK) and Mia de Vits (PES, Belgium).

There are seven political groups in the new legislature: the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED, 268 members), the Group of Socialists in the European Parliament (PES, 200 MEPs), the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE, 88 members), the Greens and European Free Alliance group (Greens/EFA, 42 members), the Confederal Group of the European United Left and Nordic Green Left (EUL/NGL, 41), the Independence and Democracy group (IND/DEM, 33 deputies) and the Union for Europe of the Nations group (UEN, 27 members).

The remaining 33 members will sit as non-attached MEPs.