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The 'President of the European Parliament' oversees all the activities of the European Parliament and its constituent bodies. He or she presides over its plenary sittings and chairs the meetings of the Bureau and Conference of Presidents. He or she represents Parliament in all external relations, particularly international relations. The President's role is similar to that of a speaker in a national parliament.
The 'Bureau' is the regulatory body responsible for Parliament's budget and for administrative matters. It consists of the President, fourteen 'Vice-Presidents', and six 'Quaestors' who are responsible for administrative matters relating directly to MEPs. All the members of the Bureau are elected for a period of 30 months, elections being held at the start of and midway through each five-year parliamentary term.
The 'Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament' is made up of the President of Parliament and the political group chairmen, and is the body responsible for Parliament's political organisation.

Contents

List of Presidents of the European Parliament

Pre-election Presidents 1952–1979

Post-election Presidents, 1979–present

Election of Presidents

6th term

See also

References

External links

List of Presidents of the European Parliament

Pre-election Presidents 1952–1979

Dates in office	Name	Group	Country
Presidents of the Common Assembly, 1952–1958
1952–1954	Paul Henri Spaak	Socialist
1954 (died 19/8)	Alcide De Gasperi	Christian Democrat
1954–1956	Giuseppe Pella	Christian Democrat
1956–1958	Hans Furler	Christian Democrat
Presidents of the Parliamentary Assembly, 1958–1962
1958–1960	Robert Schuman	Christian Democrat
1960–1962	Hans Furler	Christian Democrat
Presidents of the appointed Parliament, 1962–1979
1962–1964	Gaetano Martino	Liberal
1964–1965	Jean Pierre Duvieusart	Christian Democrat
1965–1966	Victor Leemans	Christian Democrat
1966–1969	Alain Poher	Christian Democrat
1969–1971	Mario Scelba	Christian Democrat
1971–1973	Walter Behrendt	Socialist
1973–1975	Cornelis Berkhouwer	Liberal
1975–1977	Georges Spénale	Socialist
1977–1979	Emilio Colombo	Christian Democrat

Post-election Presidents, 1979–present

Term	Dates in office	Name	Party	European Party	Country
1°	1979–1982	Simone Veil	UDF	ELDR
	1982–1984	Piet Dankert	PvDA	PES
2°	1984–1987	Pierre Pflimlin	UDF/RPR	EPP
	1987–1989	Charles Henry Plumb	CP	EPP
3°	1989–1992	Enrique Barón Crespo	PSOE	PES
	1992–1994	Egon Klepsch	CDU	EPP
4°	1994–1997	Klaus Hänsch	SPD	PES
	1997–1999	José María Gil-Robles	PP	EPP
5°	1999–2002	Nicole Fontaine	UMP	EPP
	2002–2004	Pat Cox	PD	ELDR
6°	2004–2007	Josep Borrell Fontelles	PSOE	PES
	2007–2009	Hans-Gert Poettering	CDU	EPP

Election of Presidents

The President requires an overall majority of votes cast in order to be elected. If this is not attained on the first ballot, new candidates can join the second and third ballots, but a fourth ballot is confined to the top two candidates from the third. 14 Vice Presidents are elected at the same time. Duties of Vice Presidents (europarl.europa.eu)
There is usually an agreement between two of the three major parties to share the presidency, it being split into two half-terms. For example in the current 6th term, the European People's Party supported the Party of European Socialists candidate for the first term (2004-2007), and vice versa for the second (2007-2009). During the election of the President, the plenary is presided over by the oldest member of the Parliament, from 2004 this has been Giovanni Berlinguer.

6th term

{|
|-
| valign=top |
{|
|-
| valign=top |
'Start: 30 July, 2004;'
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Candidates!!Group!!Country!!Votes
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|Josep Borrell Fontelles||PES||||align=right|388
|---- bgcolor=#FFFFDD
|Bronisław Geremek||ALDE||||align=right|208
|---- bgcolor=#FFC0CB
|Francis Wurtz||EUL/NGL||||align=right|51
|}
'Vice Presidents'
'Elected (unopposed) in order of precedence;'
{| class="wikitable"
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|1||Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca||EPP-ED||
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|2||Antonios Trakatellis||EPP-ED||
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|3||Dagmar Roth-Behrendt||PES||
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|4||Edward McMillan-Scott||EPP-ED||
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|5||Ingo Friedrich||EPP-ED||
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|6||Mario Mauro||EPP-ED||
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|7||António Costa||PES||
|---- bgcolor=#FFFFDD
|8||Luigi Cocilovo||ALDE||
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|9||Jacek Saryusz-Wolski||EPP-ED||
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|10||Pierre Moscovici||PES||
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|11||Miroslav Ouzký||EPP-ED||
|---- bgcolor=#FFFFDD
|12||Janusz Onyszkiewicz||ALDE||
|---- bgcolor=#CCFFCC
|13||Gérard Onesta||Greens/EFA||
|---- bgcolor=#FFC0CB
|14||Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann||EUL/NGL||
|}
| valign=top |
'Mid: 16 January 2007;'^[1]
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Candidates!!Group!!Country!!Votes
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|Hans-Gert Pöttering||EPP-ED||||align=right|450
|---- bgcolor=#CCFFCC
|Monica Frassoni||Greens/EFA||||align=right|145
|---- bgcolor=#FFC0CB
|Francis Wurtz||EUL/NGL||||align=right|48
|----- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|Jens-Peter Bonde||ID||||align=right|46
|}
'Vice Presidents'
'Elected (unopposed) in order of precedence;'
{| class="wikitable"
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|1||Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou||EPP-ED||||322
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|2||Alejo Vidal-Quadras||EPP-ED||||300
|---- bgcolor=#CCFFCC
|3||Gérard Onesta||Greens/EFA||||285
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|4||Edward McMillan-Scott||EPP-ED||||274
|---- bgcolor=#DDEEFF
|5||Mario Mauro||EPP-ED||||262
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|6||Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez||PES||||260
|---- bgcolor=#FFFFDD
|7||Luigi Cocilovo||ALDE||||234
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|8||Mechtild Rothe||PES||||217
|---- bgcolor=#FFC0CB
|9||Luisa Morgantini||GUE/NGL||||207
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|10||Pierre Moscovici||PES||||207
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|11||Manuel António Dos Santos||PES||||193
|---- bgcolor=#FFFFDD
|12||Diana Wallis||ALDE||||192
|---- bgcolor=#FFE8E8
|13||Marek Siwiec||PES||||180
|---- bgcolor=#E0FFFF
|14||Adam Bielan||UEN||||128
|}
|}
:''Details of previous elections can be found here''

See also

★ Presidents of the European Union

★
★ President-in-Office of the European Council

★
★ Presidency of the Council of the European Union

★
★ President of the European Commission

References

1. European Parliament Press Release on election

External links

★ Duties of the President europarl.europa.eu

★ Presidents of the European Parliament European Navigator