[autom.vertaling] Het Europees Parlement kiest de tweede vertegenwoordiger van IGC (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - After a week of behind-the-scenes negotiating the biggest party in the European Parliament has finally chosen its representative for the intergovernmental debate on the draft EU Constitution.

The European Peoples' Party (EPP) have decided to go with Spanish MEP Inigo Mendez de Vigo.

A member of Convention President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's inner team, the Spaniard was a powerful figure in the year-long deliberations on the Treaty blueprint.

He will, along with German MEP Klaus Hänsch from the Socialist party, represent views of the European Parliament on the Constitution during IGC debates.

Mr Mendez de Vigo's appointment was, however, not without some scuffle in the group - he just pipped his German colleague Elmar Brok to the post.

Attempts to meet the decision democratically last week, by vote within the group, were thwarted when there was a dead heat between the two men.

The decision, reached last night, was taken without vote as many members of the group were not present - a letter will today be sent to the European Parliament President Pat Cox formally informing him of the decision.

Insiders say that the fact that one German is already representing the Parliament played a role in the decision.

However, Mr Brok, who represented the Parliament at the last IGC talks on the Nice Treaty, is not entirely out of the picture. He will be present on behalf of the EPP group - and not the Parliament - in the realms of the Intergovernmental Conference which begins on Saturday in Rome.