Created: January 2017 EP President Election Policy Context – The Contenders – Analysis Policy Context While the European Parliament – currently headed by Martin Schulz MEP (S&D, Germany) – is elected for a five-year term, the President, the Vice-Presidents and the Quaestors are elected by their peers for a two-and-a-half year period. The new President of the European Parliament is expected to be elected during the first session of the Plenary for 2017, on 17 and 18 January. The procedure for election of the European Parliament President is set in Rule 16 of the Rules of Procedure to the European Parliament. The Rule stipulates that the President shall be elected first, through secret ballot in Plenary. The vote can take up to four rounds. The candidate has to receive an absolute majority of votes during the first three rounds, in order to be successful. In the case this majority has not been met after the three rounds are completed, the two candidates with the most votes are challenged in the fourth and final ballot. Should a tie occur in this fourth ballot then the oldest candidate is elected. There has been a long-lasting tradition of the EPP and S&D Groups splitting the two two-and-a-half years terms between them. However, the head of the S&D Group Gianni Pittella this time decided to break this so-called ‘power-sharing agreement’ by announcing his candidacy in November 2016. The Contenders Antonio Tajani (EPP, Italy) Antonio Tajani has been Vice-Chair of the European People's Party since 2002 and is a member of the EPP Group Bureau which prepares the party's position for European Council summits. He has been an MEP since 2014, having also previously held a seat in the Parliament between 1994-2008. He is a member of the Parliament's Bureau and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. During the Barroso II Commission administration, he appointed Commissioner for Transport (2008-2010) and later Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014). Domestically, Tajani is a member of Forza Italia (FI) – a party which he co-founded – and has been a member of its executive committee since 2014. He did, however, leave the organisation between 2009- 2013. He led FI's delegation to the European Parliament between 1999-2008. Before entering politics he had a military career, first as an Officer in the Italian Air Force, then as an Air Defence Controller and later as Head of the Operations Room monitoring air traffic. He has also had a career in the media, variously as a journalist and Editor “We are working to find a at Il Settimanale and Il Giornale and as a radio news presenter. consensus, a large enough consensus to allow this Parliament Tajani has a degree in Law from La Sapienza University, to guarantee political stability to Rome. He speaks English, French, and Spanish in addition to allow the Commission to continue his native Italian. to work, but at the same time a Parliament that is always closer to the citizens”. Gianni Pittella (S&D, Italy) Gianni Pittella has been an MEP since his election in 1999. In 2014 he became President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D) group after receiving 96% of votes, having already been Vice- Chair since 1999. He is also a member of the S&D Group Bureau. In his time as an MEP he has served on several committees – namely the Committee on Budgets, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and Committee on Culture and Education – and been part of EU “Many things within the European delegations to a number of European neighbourhood states. Union don’t work, and are going to He was Vice-President of the European Parliament between be changed. The economic policy is 2009-2014. suffocated by austerity which drives down consumption and Pittella began his career in politics on the Basilicata Regional destroys jobs. The undue shyness Council and was later elected to the Italian Parliament to of national governments, all too represent the Democratic Party in 1996. Before entering often reluctant to accept politics he studied medicine at the University of Naples transferring sovereignty, which is, Federico II. Shortly after graduating he became General in fact, necessary. The weight of a Secretary of the Young Socialists. European bureaucracy, which at times appears designed to He is the author of several books on reforming Europe. He is discourage creativity in business also visiting professor at the University of East Anglia's and amongst the citizens.” London Academy of Diplomacy and president of PrimaPersona, a political association which promotes political participation, and the co-founder of the Centre for Mediterranean Europe Studies. “The main tragedy in Europe is unemployment. Work is not only a source of livelihood, but it’s the key to obtaining freedom, autonomy and independence -rights which everyone should have in life. In the next legislature, all efforts must be concentrated in creating and defending jobs. In order to do this, it is necessary to overcome the suicidal approach, pursued at a European level over the past years. The death, the implementation that is of economic policies which have reduced, indiscriminately, public spending and investments, is the main cause of the current stagnation in Europe.” © DeHavilland Information Services Ltd 2017 2 Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE, Belgium) Guy Verhofstadt is the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE), a position he has held since becoming elected as an MEP in the 2009 European election. During this time he has also served on the Committee on Constitutional Affairs. In September 2016 he was appointed head of the European Parliament's negotiations for the UK leaving the EU by the Conference of Presidents. “I believe we have to reform our institutions thoroughly: make them Prior to his election to the European Parliament, Mr Verhofstadt served as focus on the important things and Prime Minister of Belgium for nearly a decade (1999-2008). render them more efficient. I This made him the first Liberal PM since 1884. A Member of believe that it is only through a Parliament since 1982, he was previously Deputy Prime reformed and more efficient Europe Minister and Minister of Budget under the Wilfried Martens that we will regain sovereignty in administration. the globalised world we live in.” “I want to fix the economy by Politically active from a young age, he was President of his setting the conditions right for the party at just 29. Whilst studying Law at the University of private sector and by redirecting the Ghent he was President of the Liberal Flemish Students EU budget to large-scale, innovative Association. projects with a clear return on “I believe civil liberties cannot be investment.” Mr Verhofstadt is taken for granted and that we the founder of the should fight for them. Under the federalist Spinelli Group. He is a board member of both the guise of ‘subsidiarity’, European Institute of Public Administration and Friends of conservatives and eurosceptics say Europe. He has called for greater European cooperation and that civil liberties and human rights integration to tackle issues such as the Eurozone crisis and should be left to the member states. migration. I believe that the rise in extremism and populism should be a concern “[The European Parliament] will play a central role in for all Europeans. There is no such Article 50 and any future EU-UK agreements.” thing as a partially free Europe.” © DeHavilland Information Services Ltd 2017 3 Helga Stevens (ECR, Belgium) Born in 1968, Helga Stevens is a Vice-President of the ECR Group and the only deaf Member of the European Parliament. She’s been a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee since her first election as an MEP in 2014. Among other activities, Ms Stevens was Rapporteur for a report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), with special regard to the Concluding Observations of the UN CRPD Committee. She started her political career in 2004 as a member of the “I am running because I believe the Flemish Parliament for the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (NVA). European Parliament, as the directly She was also elected at the Belgian Senate in 2007. She was elected assembly, needs to be far subsequently re-elected to both seats in 2009 and 2010 more open and representative of the respectively. whole EU. I have seen how all major decisions are made in a Prior to her political responsibilities, Ms Stevens worked as backroom by men from just few an attorney in training (1994-1996) and held various countries. Europe is wide and responsibilities at the European Union of the Deaf (EUD), diverse, and that diversity needs to until she became its Director (1996-2004). She is a former be represented and every country’s President of the EUD (2005-2007). elected representatives should be equal.” A graduate from the Catholic University of Leuven and the University of California in Berkeley, she was the first Belgian deaf person to receive a law degree. “I want to show that it is possible to have a European Parliament President that represents and unites the whole house and all of Europe’s representatives, so that we can deliver an open, transparent and effective parliament that will better connect with European citizens.” Eleonora Forenza (GUE/NGL, Italy) Born in 1976, Eleonora Forenza has “Self-determination is the key word been a member of the Committee on to my candidacy for the European International Trade (INTA) since her Parliament presidency.