Incoming European Parliament appoints its new research committee

The newly-elected European Parliament sitting in Strasbourg today  approved the membership of its working committees, laying the ground for the first sittings to take place in Brussels next week, when the chairs and vice-chairs will be elected.

However, in most cases the political groups have agreed who the committee chairs will be, with Jerzy Buzek,  Poland’s prime minister from 1997 to 2001, expected to head the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee. He will succeed Amalia Sartori, who lost her seat and is currently under house arrest in Italy, as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in the procurement of a new flood defence system for Venice.

Buzek, a chemical engineer by training, was the Parliament’s rapporteur for Framework Programme 7, the predecessor of the €80 billion Horizon 2020 programme. He is best known for his efforts to secure pan-European coordination - and greater EU involvement - in energy policies.  In Parliament, Buzek is a prodigious speaker on the topic. 

This year marks a decade since Buzek became an MEP. From 2009 to mid-2011, he was the President of the European Parliament – the first president to hail from one of the 2004 accession countries. In addition to previous service on ITRE, Buzek is a former member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). He has also been  vice-president of the European Energy Forum since 2004.

The class of 2014

In total, 17 members of the last ITRE Committee are returning to sit for a further term. Among the returning faces are Spain’s Pilar del Castillo Vera, Germany’s Christian Ehler and Austria’s Paul Rübig.

Antonio Tajani, Italy, joins ITRE after resigning as Vice-President of the European Commission, where he held a brief on industry and entrepreneurship.

Far-right parliamentarians are present but marginalised by their relative size. One of the more outspoken members of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Roger Helmer, may clash with Buzek on energy policy. Helmer is a hardened skeptic of renewable energy and once ran a poster campaign which read, "Green climate change policies: Probably unnecessary, Certainly ineffectual, Ruinously expensive."

The inbox

Amongst the most pressing innovation-related issues ITRE will deal with in the next term are digital and energy policy questions, data protection, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), currently being negotiated with the US, and the ongoing task of minimising red tape.

ITRE is the third largest committee after ENVI with 69 members, and Foreign Affairs with 71 members.

Places on committees and their chairs are allocated according to the relative size of the political groups in the Parliament, which take turns to make their pick according to a formula known as the D’Hondt method. The aim is to ensure that each committee broadly reflects the political representation across the Parliament as a whole.

As the biggest party with 221 MEPs, the EPP got to choose its committee preferences first. The negotiations concluded on 27 June, and were approved by a majority today, during the plenary.

Chairing roles are valid for the first half of the five-year Parliament mandate. The rumours around the corridors of Strasbourg are that another Polish MEP, Janusz Lewandowski, will take up the position after Buzek steps aside. He joined the Parliament this week after resigning as Commissioner for the EU Budget.  

Other posts decided

Former ITRE member, Vicky Ford, is expected to be named chairwoman of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) committee next week.

Bernd Lange, a German centre-left MEP sitting with S&D, is rumoured to be the chair nominee for the Committee on International Trade, which will have some say on TTIP.

An S&D MEP, most likely Claude Moraes, will take the chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), the committee responsible for examining controversial rules on data protection.

The 751 MEPs gathered in Strasbourg this week, as the eighth European Parliament was formally constituted on Tuesday. The programme also included renewing the term of the Parliament President, and formally ushering in the Italian Presidency of the EU Council.

MEPs also  selected new vice-presidents, who are involved in decisions on administrative, staff and organisational matters. Fourteen members, six EPP, three S&D, two ALDE and one from each of the other political groups apart from the EFDD group, led by UK Independence Party head Nigel Farage, were chosen, with two former Commissioners, Tajani and Oli Rehn of Finland, among those elected vice-presidents.

The list of 67 ITRE committee members and their political grouping  is below:

Centre-right, European People’s Party (EPP) – 20 members

1. Bendt Bendtsen, Denmark
2. Jerzy Buzek, Poland
3. Pilar Del Castillo Vera, Spain
4. Christian Ehler, Germany
5. András Gyürk, Hungary
6. Krišjānis Kariņš, Latvia
7. Seán Kelly, Ireland
8. Janusz Lewandowski, Poland
9. Nadine Morano, France
10. Angelika Niebler, Germany
11. Aldo Patriciello, Italy
12. Herbert Reul, Germany
13. Paul Rübig, Austria
14. Algirdas Saudargas, Lithuania
15. Antonio Tajani, Italy
16. Vladimir Urutchev, Bulgaria
17. Adina-Ioana Vălean, Romania
18. Henna Virkkunen, Finland
19. Hermann Winkler, Germany
20. Anna Záborská, Slovakia

Centre-left, Socialist Party (S&Ds) – 17 members

1. Zigmantas Balčytis, Lithuania
2. Soledad Cabezón Ruiz, Spain
3. Adam Gierek, Poland
4. Theresa Griffin, UK
5. Eva Kaili, Greece
6. Jeppe Kofod, Denmark
7. Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, Finland
8. Edouard Martin, France
9. Csaba Molnár, Croatia
10. Dan Nica, Romania
11. Miroslav Poche, Czech Republic
12. Sergey Stanishev, Bulgaria
13. Patrizia Toia, Italy
14. Kathleen Van Brempt, Belgium
15. Martina Werner, Germany
16. Flavio Zanonato, Italy
17. Carlos Zorrinho, Portugal

European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) – 6 members

 

1. Nikolai Barekov, Bulgaria
2. Ashley Fox, UK
3. Marek Józef Gróbarczyk, Poland
4. Hans-Olaf Henkel, Germany
5. Dawid Bohdan Jackiewicz, Poland
6. Evžen Tošenovský, Czech Republic

Liberal Party (ALDE) – 6 members

 

 

1. Andrus Ansip, Estonia
2. Philippe De Backer, Belgium
3. Fredrick Federley, Sweden
4. Juan Carlos Girauta Vidal, Spain
5. Angelika Mlinar, Austria
6. Morten Helveg Petersen, Denmark

Group of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) – 4 members

 

 

1. Pablo Echenique Robba, Spain
2. Paloma López Bermejo, Spain
3. Miloslav Ransdorf, Czech Republic
4. Neoklis Sylikiotis, Cyprus

Green Party – 5 members

 

 

1. Reinhard Bütikofer, Germany
2. Peter Eriksson, Sweden
3. Ernest Maragall, Spain
4. 4.    Michel Reimon, Austria
5. 5.    Claude Turmes, Luxembourg

Europe of Freedom and Democracy Direct (EFDD) – 4 members

 

 

1. David Borrelli, Italy
2. Roger Helmer, UK
3. Rolandas Paksas, Lithuania
4. Dario Tamburrano, Italy

Non-attached – 5 members

 

 

1. Nicolas Bay, France
2. Gianluca Buonanno, Italy
3. Barbara Kappel, Austria
4. Béla Kovács, Hungary
5. Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, France

 

There are 17 MEPs returning from the previous ITRE term, 2009-2014. These are:

1. Patrizia Toia, Italy
2. Bendt Bendtsen, Denmark
3. Reinhard Bütikofer, Germany
4. Pilar del Castillo Vera, Spain
5. Christian Ehler, Germany
6. Adam Gierek, Poland
7. András Gyürk, Hungary
8. Béla Kovács, Hungary
9. Angelika Niebler, Germany
10. Rolandas Paksas, Lithuania
11. Aldo Patriciello, Italy
12. Herbert Reul, Germany
13. Paul Rubig, Austria
14. Claude Turmes, Luxembourg
15. Adina-Ioana Vălean, Romania
16. Kathleen Van Brempt, Belgium
17. Miloslav Ransdorf, Czech Republic