International

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong is supporting British Liberal Democrat Diana Wallis’s independent candidature for the presidency of the European Parliament. ‘Normally the presidency is regulated according to a cosy relationship between the two biggest groups, the centre-right European People’s Party and the centre-left “Socialists and Democrats”. I simply want the best candidate in the president’s chair and to see an end to this Brussels job-hunting,’ De Jong says.

He explained his support for Wallis at a press conference held this morning at the European Parliament. ‘I’ve enjoyed working in cooperation with Diana Wallis over the last couple of years on tackling the problem of Brussels’ back room politics. A transparent and fully accountable European Parliament is of primary importance, now more than ever. Diana Wallis has devoted a great part of her time and energy to the establishment of the transparency register as well as the drafting of the Code of Conduct for MEPs. I am therefore convinced that a vote for Diana is a vote for transparency and I fully support her candidature. Wallis is the right woman to make the work of the European Parliament more honest and clearer, something that is at the heart of the work of the president of the parliament.’

The president of the European Parliament is elected every two-and-a-half years by the individual MEPs in a secret ballot. Following the elections in 2009 the centre-right PPE, to which the Dutch Christian Democrats are affiliated, and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats, the group to which the PvdA (Labour Party) belongs, divided the presidential post between themselves, with current president, the Polish Christian Democrat Jerzy Buzek with the ‘Socialists and Democrats’ leader, the German Martin Schulz, chosen to pick up the baton for the next term. The election of the new president is scheduled for January.