British Liberal MEP Graham Watson and Italian conservative MEP Mario Mauro pulled out of the race to become European Parliament president last week, giving Polish centre-right MEP Jerzy Buzek a clear run to become the EU assembly's next head.
The session will open today (14 July) with the presidency vote, which will take place by secret ballot.
However, a so-called 'technical agreement' struck between the Parliament's two biggest political groups, the centre-right European People's Party and the Socialists - shatters any hope that far-left Swedish MEP Eva Britt-Svensson (EUL-NGL), Buzek's only remaining opponent, had of winning the race.
Buzek also has the support of the Liberals (ALDE), the Greens and the new anti-federalist group spearheaded by the UK Tories, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR).
Horse trading
During the three-day sitting in Strasbourg, political groups will continue their horse-trading over appointments to the Parliament's top committees.
The distribution of committee chairs has for the most part already been decided, on the basis of negotiations held last week and a distribution key which gives groups proportional representation according to their size (the so-called 'D'Hondt method').
The centre-right EPP group is set to keep its nine chairs, the Socialists six and the Liberals (ALDE) three. The Green group and the ECR group will take one each.
On Thursday morning (16 July), many of the 20 committees will hold their inaugural meetings, electing their chairs and vice-chairs based on proposals made by the Conference of Group Chairmen, which will meet on Wednesday.
The appointment of committee chairs follows the D'Hondt system - named after the Belgian mathematician who designed the method - which allocates positions on the basis of political groups' size (EurActiv 09/07/09).
However, the precise allocation of seats may shift until the last minute, as political horse-trading continues between the main political groups.
In recent days, a number of names have emerged. Although the political groups have not confirmed any of the names of committee chairs that are circulating in Brussels, "we have not jumped to deny them, as they go in the right direction," said EPP spokesman Robert Fitzhenry last Friday.
Subject to last-minute changes during behind-closed-doors negotiations, group sources indicated to EurActiv that the chairs could be divided as follows:
| Committee |
|
Chairman/Chairwoman |
| AFET | Foreign Affairs | Mario MAURO (Italy; EPP) |
| DROI | Human Rights | Heidi HAUTALA (Finland; Greens) |
| SEDE | Security and Defence | EPP |
| DEVE | Development | Eva JOLY (France; Greens) |
| INTA | International Trade | S&D (Portugal) |
| BUDG | Budget | Alain LAMASSOURE (France; EPP) |
| CONT | Budgetary Control | Luigi de MAGISTRIS (Italy; ALDE) |
| ECON | Economic and Monetary Affairs | Sharon BOWLES (United Kingdom; ALDE) |
| EMPL | Employment and Social Affairs | Pervenche BERES (France; S&D) |
| ENVI | Environment, Public Health and Food Safety | Jo LEINEN (Germany; S&D) |
| ITRE | Industry, Research and Energy | Herbert REUL (Germany; EPP) |
| IMCO | Internal Market and Consumer Protection | Malcolm HARBOUR (United Kingdom; ECR) |
| TRAN | Transport and Tourism | Brian SIMPSON (United Kingdom; S&D) |
| REGI | Regional Development | Danuta HÜBNER (Poland; EPP) |
| AGRI | Agriculture and Rural Development | Paolo DE CASTRO (Italy; S&D) |
| CULT | Culture and Education | Doris PACK (Germany; EPP) |
| JURI | Legal Affairs | Klaus-Heiner LEHNE (Germany; EPP) |
| LIBE | Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs | Fernando LOPEZ AGUILAR (Spain; S&D) |
| AFCO | Constitutional Affairs | S&D or ALDE |
| FEMM | Women's Rights and Gender Equality | GUE |
| PETI | Petitions | EFD |
| Other key posts | ||
| EU-China delegation | Graham WATSON (United Kingdom; ALDE) | |
| EU-ACP delegation | Louis MICHEL (Belgium; ALDE) | |
Other issues on the agenda
On Wednesday, the new MEPs will also debate the work of the Swedish EU Presidency with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who will present his programme for Stockholm's six months at the EU helm.
The new Parliament will likely also decide this week on when to hold a vote on the re-appointment of Commission President José Manuel Barroso for another five-year stint at the EU executive's helm, after leaders formalised his nomination last week. But the EU assembly's main political groups have already decided to postpone the official vote on his re-appointment until after the summer recess.
Barroso will have to present his programme and make it public before a vote can take place, after the Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens had urged him to do so.
Commissioner hearings
Last week, group leaders also agreed to hold hearings in September for all the new commissioners who recently replaced those who left to take up new mandates, like Danuta Hübner and Louis Michel, who became MEPs, and Dalia Grybauskaite, who was elected president of Lithuania (EurActiv 30/06/09).
The hearings will be a "light procedure", a parliament official said on Friday, noting that the commissioners will go through a shorter round of questions and answers with MEPs than usual.
