Spanish Socialist joins race for Parliament president job

By Martin Banks

Date: 01/07/04

FORMER Spanish government minister Josep Borrell this week emerged as a contender to become the next president of the European Parliament.

Borrell has been put forward as the candidate of the Spanish Socialist Party, whose 24 MEPs constitute the second biggest national delegation in the assembly's Socialist group.

The 57-year-old was a cabinet minister under the then Spanish prime minister Felipe González.

Elected party leader in 1998, he stood down as Socialist candidate for prime minister a year later, saying he did not want a fraud investigation into two of his former business partners to damage his party's chances in the 2000 election.

If, as expected, the assembly's two biggest political groups agree to share the presidency for the next five-year legislature, a Socialist MEP will occupy the post for the first two-and-a-half years with a candidate from the European People's Party (EPP-ED) filling in for the second half.

EPP-ED leader Hans-Gert Pöttering is widely tipped to be his party's nominee, but who the Socialist candidate will be is far less certain. Borrell, an engineer who is fluent in English and French, is a strong contender: he served as the Spanish parliament's representative on the Convention that drafted the EU constitution and was top of his party's list in last month's European elections.

He joins a crowded field of Socialist contenders. The UK's Terry Wynn and Austria's Johannes Swoboda, are already in the running. The French prime minister, Michel Rocard, is tipped to join the race and last night, (30 June) Slovenian deputy Borut Pahor became the latest contender.

The 41-year-old has also been an MP and speaker of the Slovenia national parliament. Fluent in English, Italian and French, he was the only Socialist elected in the European elections.

Swoboda, an MEP since 1996, is a vice-chairman of the Party of European Socialists (PES) while Wynn, who was first elected in 1989, is the outgoing chairman of the influential budget committee.

One possible stumbling block to any EPP-PES deal is opposition from the 31-strong French Socialist delegation, the group's largest national bloc.

Despite this, the Socialists, deprived of the presidency for more than seven years, are keen to negotiate a deal with the EPP-ED. They fear that failure to do so could pave the way for their bigger centre-right rival to take the presidency for a full term.

A PES insider said last night: "There's a lot of horse-trading and no little infighting going on behind the scenes but it looks like the way is clear for a deal to be announced next week. The identity of our candidate, however, is still wide open. Clearly, as the nominee of our second largest delegation, Borrell is a serious contender."

A decision on any agreement could come as soon as next Monday (5 July) when the newly formed political groups meet for the first time since the elections. The assembly's 732 MEPs are due to elect a president to replace Irishman Pat Cox on 21 July in Strasbourg.

Besides chairing plenary sessions, the Parliament's president plays an important role in the nomination of senior officials and represents the assembly on official duties.

The EPP-ED and PES have been criticized for refusing to take part in a debate on 13 July between presidency candidates. Organizers say only the Liberal and the Eurosceptic groups have agreed.