Politieke stromingen vergaderen over nieuwe voorzitter Europees Parlement (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The centre-right and socialist group in the European Parliament will today hold a meeting to see if they can stitch up the presidency of the Brussels assembly between them.

Leader of the Socialist Party, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and head of the socialist group (PES) in the Parliament, Enrique Baron Crespo, will meet their European People Party's (EPP) counterparts, Wilfried Martens and Hans-Gert Pöttering this afternoon to try and hammer out an agreement.

The EPP, the biggest group in the parliament, also met with the liberals yesterday on the issue but a source said a deal is expected to be made with the socialists.

It is expected, according to EPP sources, that they will decide this afternoon to split the five-year presidency between them with the Socialists in power for the first two and a half years and the centre-right for the more influential second half.

Hans-Gert Pöttering is expected to take over for the centre-right.

The two political groups are also set to make a pact to make progress in other areas - such as the disputed question of the MEPs' pay system - which has caused so many headlines in recent weeks.

Speaking on Wednesday (16 June), the head of the French Socialists delegation Pervench Beres said "the technical accord between the European Socialist Party and the European People's Party will be finalised on Thursday".

However, some cautioned against being too hasty. "This still has be discussed with the whole of the socialist group" said a PES insider adding, "We are not there yet".

The socialists also say they have no fixed name for who could take over as Parliament president from their ranks.

At the moment, the names most commonly mentioned are UK labour MEP Terry Wynn, Michel Rocard, the former French prime minister and Pierre Moscovici, former French foreign minister.