Pöttering to work for a ‘strong EU’

German centre-right MEP Hans-Gert Pöttering has pledged to serve all members of the European Parliament after being elected as president on 16 January.

Pöttering promised to work for a "democratic and strong EU" and to bring the Union closer to its citizens. He said his guiding principles would be respect for human dignity, the rule of law and solidarity. His priorities would be getting as much of the substance of the EU’s constitution as possible into force.

He said he would be presenting his work programme on 13 February. Responding to suggestions that the Parliament would be dominated by the German government and the grand coalition in Berlin, Pöttering said: "I will make every effort to be a fair and objective president."

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-president of the Greens/EFA, said that Pöttering had to ensure that the Parliament’s administration was not "politically coloured". The new president replied: "It goes without saying that officials are independent in that they are serving the Parliament as a whole". Cohn-Bendit also called on the new president to allow MEPs to debate the issue of where the assembly met.

Pöttering won 450 of the 715 votes cast, well over the 345 absolute majority he needed. But Greens/European Free Alliance co-president Monica Frassoni who stood against Pöttering on a campaign of political independence for the Parliament from governments’ and lobbyists’ influence, polled well, winning 145 votes, over a hundred votes more than the 42 members of her group. Frassoni, who warned that the Parliament risked losing its autonomy and credibility as an independent EU institution if its decisions were dictated by the grand coalition of Christian Democrats and Socialists, both in Berlin and Strasbourg, picked up votes from some French, Italian, Belgian and Dutch Socialists, and some German, UK and Italian Liberals.

Frassoni pledged to keep up the pressure for reform of Parliament’s procedures.

Hans-Gert Pöttering’s cabinet

• Chef de cabinet : Klaus Welle

• Deputy chef: Ciril Štokelj

• External policies, national parliaments: Alexander Stutzmann, Ana Fernandez Perles

• Internal policies: Antonio Preto (legal questions), Karen Fredsgaard (Lisbon strategy), Eschel Alpermann, Johann Colsman (economy and transport)

• Strategic planning: Anthony Teasdale, Freddy Drexler, Thomas Subelack, Astrid Worum

• Press: Katrin Ruhrmann, Jesus Gomez, Fearghas O'Beara, Robert Golanski

• Special adviser multilingualism: Gérard Bokanowski

German centre-right MEP Hans-Gert Pöttering has pledged to serve all members of the European Parliament after being elected as president on 16 January.

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