BRUSSELS – Less than a week before the European elections, the main parties in the European Parliament have hammered out a deal on who will succeed German christian-democrat Hans-Gert Poettering as president of the institution, according to sources.
According to Polish officials who are familiar with the talks, Polish MEP Jerzy Buzek will take over the helm at the parliament’s first official meeting in Strasbourg in July.
Buzek, a former Polish prime minister, had been locked into a contest with Italian MEP Mario Mauro
According to the Polish sources, Mauro had did not get sufficient support because he is from the same party, Forza Italia, as Italy’s President Silvio Berlusconi, probably the least popular European head of state in Brussels.
Officials at the parliament and at the EPP group, which includes the christian-democratic parties, were not immediately able to comment.
Buzek’s term is to be for the first 2 1/2 years of the 2009-2014 parliament. The second half of the term is expected to be taken up by a representative of another political group, most likely the socialist group, although, according to the sources, that still is not decided.
The liberal group ALDE, who has dismissed a similar power-sharing deal for the 2004-2009 parliament as an “unholy alliance” between christian-democrats and socialists, had its own candidate for the presidency, MEP Graham Watson.
Buzek was Prime Minister of Poland between 1997 and 2001. During the 2004-2009 European parliament, he sat in on 232 of the 288 sitting days during his term in office. That gives him an attendance of 80 percent.
