Schulz re-elected as European Parliament President
In its first sitting on July 1 2014, the newly-elected European Parliament voted to give Martin Schulz a second term as European Parliament President, a result of a deal between the centre-right European People’s Party group and the socialist S and D group.
Schulz won 409 out 612 votes cast in the first ballot in the 751-member European Parliament, defeating three rivals, from the ECR, GUE and Greens/EFA groups. There were 111 blank or invalid votes, according to European Parliament officials.
The 58-year old German MEP will be the European Parliament President until January 2017, when he will be succeeded by a candidate nominated by the EPP.
Schulz is the first President in the history of the European Parliament to be re-elected for a second two and a half year term.
In a brief address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg immediately after the vote, Schulz thanked for MEPs for their confidence in him.
“It’s an extraordinary honour to be the first re-elected President of the European Parliament. I will take my duty very seriously, because we are heart of the European democracy, keeping the task of passing legislation and overseeing its enforcement.
“An overwhelming majority of this house drew the conclusion that the leading candidate in the European election should become the President of European Commission, therefore a German word, Spitzenkandidat, has entered into several other European languages”.
Schulz was the candidate of the main socialist group to be the European Commission President, but was defeated by Jean-Claude Juncker, candidate of the EPP, which won the most votes in the May 22 to 25 European Parliament elections among the 28 EU member states.
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