MEPs elect president from new member state

The European Parliament yesterday started its three-day constitutive session with the historic election of a president from a member state that joined the EU together with Malta in 2004.

Considered a symbol of Europe's re-unification, former Polish Prime Minister and an MEP within the European People's Party group since 2004, Jerzy Buzek was elected to chair the European Assembly for the next two and a half years.

Mr Buzek, 69, was the EPP's candidate and will be succeeding German Hans-Gert Pöttering, also from the EPP. In the first round of voting yesterday, Mr Buzek received 555 votes out of a total of 644. His only rival candidate, leftist Eva-Britt Svensson, got 89 votes.

All five Maltese MEPs present for the inaugural session voted for Mr Buzek following an informal agreement between the three main political groups in the EP to share among themselves the major top jobs in this legislature.

According to this agreement, a Socialist nominee, most probably its current leader Martin Schultz, should take over the EP presidency from Mr Buzek mid-term, from 2012 to mid-2014, and a nominee of the Liberal group - the third largest in the EP - will be chairing a new EP committee focusing on the economic crisis.

Addressing the Chamber, Mr Buzek said he considered his election "a tribute to all those millions of people who fought for democracy" and to those under Communism who refused to "bow to the system".

Mr Buzek began his political career as an activist for the Solidarity trade union movement in Poland. He would later become Prime Minister of his country between 1997 and 2001 and participated in the accession negotiations preparing his country for integration into the European Union. MEPs yesterday also voted to elect 14-vice president and five Questors (who take care of the running of the EP) to form the presiding bureau of the EP.

The five elected Maltese MEPs, particularly the two heads of delegation, Simon Busuttil for the Nationalist Party and Louis Grech for Labour, were involved in day-long closed meetings discussing the composition of the 20 committees and 34 delegations, which the EP will be establishing during its seventh legislature.

The most important work of MEPs is normally carried out in committees where all EU legislation proposed by the European Commission is discussed and amendments by MEPs are made before a final vote is taken at the EP plenary once a month.

The Times is informed that talks were held between the Nationalist and Labour delegations prior to yesterday's inaugural session in order to agree which committees all five Maltese MEPs should "lobby for" to maximise the presence of Maltese MEPs in the EP's work.

Sources said that if all went according to plan, Malta should be represented in a substantial number of EP committees, avoiding as much as possible the presence of two Maltese MEPs on the same committee.

The final vote on the composition of the committees is expected to be taken tomorrow.