Step forward, Pöttering

German centre-right MEP Hans-Gert Pöttering is poised to be elected as president of the European Parliament by a large majority.

MEPs will vote next Tuesday (16 January) on a new president to succeed Spanish Socialist MEP Josep Borrell for the rest of this Parliament’s term which runs until 2009. Borrell will end his term on 15 January and will be replaced, pending the result of the election the next day, by the oldest member of the Parliament, Italian Socialist MEP Giovanni Berlinguer, until a new president is elected.

The elections of 14 vice-presidents of the Parliament and six quaestors are also scheduled to follow on Tuesday. The elections for chairmanships of the various Parliament committees will take place in the following week in Brussels.

Pöttering is being challenged by three candidates but is expected to win convincingly as he can count on the support of the majority of MEPs in the two largest groups - the EPP-ED and the Socialists - as well as most Liberal MEPs.

The three challengers are Monica Frassoni, co-president of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Jens-Peter Bonde, joint president of the Independence and Democracy group, and Francis Wurtz, president of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left.

European Voice will be hosting a debate with the four candidates at 19.00 on Monday, 15 January, in the European Parliament’s Strasbourg building. The debate will be chaired by European Voice editor Dana Spinant and will feature questions from a panel of senior EU affairs journalists.

German centre-right MEP Hans-Gert Pöttering is poised to be elected as president of the European Parliament by a large majority.