Last week, I had the pleasure to attend the constitutive meeting of the new Socialist Group within the European Parliament. John Attard Montalto, Louis Grech and myself had the pleasure to have George Vella with us for this first meeting since the outgoing members of the European Parliament were also invited to attend. Indeed, quite a considerable number of people attended, given that 45 per cent of the members of the group have been elected for the first time.
The first decisions that we took were related to the official posts in the group. Martin Schulz, better known to the general public as the man who Silvio Berlusconi insulted during one of last year's plenary sessions in Strasbourg, replaced Enrique Baron Crespo as group president. Martin, who has already proved himself accessible to the Maltese Labour delegation, comes across as a determined player whose 10 years of experience in Brussels and Strasbourg will help him a lot in his new role.
We also elected the group's vice presidents and treasurer.
Nevertheless, one of the most difficult decisions we had to take almost immediately during this first session was that of the selection of a Socialist candidate for the presidency of the European Parliament for the next two-and-a-half years. It was a difficult decision because of the quality of the persons who put their name forward for consideration. At the end of the day, everything boiled down to a contest between the former Spanish Socialist Party candidate for Prime Minister, Josep Borrell, and British trade unionist Terry Wynn.
Both these gentlemen are very good friends of Malta.
Josep is very keen on the European Union's Mediterranean dimension and is of the opinion that Malta has a crucial role to play in all this. Nevertheless, he "confided" with me one big "sin" for a Mediterranean: He never visited Malta! He promised the Maltese delegation that he will make up for it soon.
Josep was introduced to us by Miguel Angel Martinez, another European Parliament veteran, a former Council of Europe president and a very good friend of the Malta Labour Party.
Terry Wynn is part of the British Labour delegation, which has strong historical ties with Maltese Labour. He impressed me with his down-to-earth attitude and accessibility throughout. That is very difficult to find in a politician, such as Terry, who has until the last European Parliament occupied the highly influential post of chairman of the budget committee.
At the end of the day, Socialist members of the European Parliament opted for Josep Borrell, whose first action was to stand up and go and embrace Terry, asking him for his assistance in the coming years.
Josep promises to be an excellent president of the European Parliament, if the technical deal negotiated between PES and EPP goes through.
The Socialist Group meets again this Tuesday. This time round we will host Josè Manuel Durao Barroso and will question him about his vision as the candidate for the top job at the European Commission.
We shall see whether he earns our vote or not.
Mr Muscat is a Labour member of the European Parliament.
www.josephmuscat.com