Historic session for the European Parliament

The five Maltese MEPs will make their way to Strasbourg today to take part in a historic plenary session at the European Parliament.

The four-day session will, for the first time, bring together the newly elected 732 members of the enlarged parliament, including those of the 10 new member states.

John Attard Montalto, Louis Grech and Joseph Muscat will sit alongside their Socialist counterparts, while Simon Busuttil and David Casa will lend their voice to the EPP-ED group.

Several important decisions are to be taken during the session, including the election of the parliament's president and voting on the nomination of José Manuel Dur&atidle;o Barroso as the new president of the European Commission.

The EPP-ED group, with 279 seats, remains the largest political grouping in the European Parliament. The Socialist group has 199 seats.

National leaders of the Party of European Liberal Democrats and Reformers have given their backing to the creation of a new centrist pro-European political grouping made up of the Liberals, the Italian centrist 'Olive Tree' coalition and the French Centre-right UDF.

The new 80-strong group is to be called the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

The EPP-ED and PES parliamentary groups in the parliament have concluded an agreement of understanding for the legislative period 2004-2009 covering mutual support for the post of president of the European Parliament.

It has been agreed that José Borrell, president of the Spanish delegation of the PES group will assume the post for the first half of the legislature while Hans-Gert Pöttering, chairman of the EEP-ED group, will continue for the rest of the term.

Wednesday morning opens with an address from the newly elected president of the parliament. This will be followed by a debate led by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern on the Irish presidency and the last European council, which agreed the draft European constitution.

On Wednesday afternoon, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende will issue a statement on the priorities of the Dutch presidency for the EU over the next six months.

Later, the president-designate of the European commission, Mr Barroso, will make a statement to the session. At midday on Thursday, MEPs will vote on his candidacy for commission president.

After these tasks, MEPs will have to prepare the individual hearings of the 24 prospective commissioners. These will take place between September 27 and October 4 before the new commission assumes office on November 1.