Buzek wants EU top jobs for new member states

Former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek says that one of the key EU roles, including president of the European Parliament, should be filled by someone from a ‘new’ member state.
 
But he denied speculation that a deal has already been struck between parliament’s two largest groups for him to share the job with Socialist group leader Martin Schulz following next year’s European elections.
 
Parliament is rife with gossip that the EPP-ED and PES groups have agreed that Buzek should take the post for the first two-and-a-half years, with Schulz, a German deputy, taking over for the second half of the five-year mandate.
 
Buzek said, “I want to categorically state that there is no deal, there have been no discussions and, as far as I am aware, it is too early to speculate on who might or might not be the president.”
 
However, he said he believes that at least one of the EU’s top positions, following next year’s European elections, should be filled by one of the member states which joined the EU in 2004.
 
He said, “That would send out the right signal that someone from one of these countries could be considered suitable for what is widely seen as one of the most influential positions in the EU. Enlargement is one thing but integration is another.”
 
Schulz was unavailable for comment but on Tuesday this week, he told a routine group meeting of the Socialist group in Strasbourg, that he too wished to dismiss as “pure speculation” any suggestion that a ‘job share’ deal had been struck.
 
Schulz, who is widely seen as having done an effective job in his four years as group leader, also told the meeting that he wanted to continue in the role after next year’s elections.
 
A parliamentary insider said, even so, this would not rule out the possibility of him becoming president in the second half of the mandate.
 
“That would probably be the best option as he would not then be directly following Hans-Gert Pöttering, another German MEP, in parliament’s top job,” he said. “Parliament has had successive Germans as president in the past but this would not go down at all well with a lot if it happened again.”
 
Buzek, a former academic and PM from 1997-2001, was elected to parliament with a record number of votes.
 
He belongs to the Civic Platform party in Poland, which is aligned to the EPP-ED, parliament’s largest group. The party is expected to do well in the elections.
 
The likeable Pole is highly-regarded among other MEPs and would not be a controversial choice if the job, which has assumed a far greater profile in recent years, goes to someone from a new member state.
 
Senior German deputy Elmar Brok said, “All this speculation is a bit premature and nothing has been decided but I have some sympathy with those who argue the next president should go to a new member state MEP.”

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