With seven members, the EPP has half of the vice-president seats in the European Parliament’s Bureau. The 14 vice-presidents for the next two and a half years were elected in the third round, on 18 January. Not a single candidate managed to get a qualified majority in the first two rounds. The three S&D candidates obtained the largest number of votes, hinting at an alliance with the ALDE and Greens-EFA groups. László Surján (EPP, Hungary) received the smallest number of votes. The fifteenth candidate, Indrek Tarand (Greens-EFA, Estonia), running as an independent, withdrew in the third round. Only two vice-presidents are women.

The EPP put up seven candidates for the EP vice-presidency. Three of them already held that position in the first half of the mandate: Alejo Vidal-Quadras (Spain), Rainer Weiland (Germany) and Roberta Angelilli (Italy). Tipped for such a role, Othmar Karas (Austria) got the necessary backing from the plenary. So did Giorgios Papastamkos (Greece), Jacek Protasiewicz (Poland) and László Surján (Hungary). Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (Greece) and László Tökés (Hungary), on the other hand, both relinquish their vice-president seats.

The Socialists, due to the fact that Martin Schulz has become EP president, lost two vice-president seats compared to the first half of the mandate. Miguel Angel Martínez (Spain), Gianni Pittella (Italy) and Anni Podimata (Greece) were voted in. ALDE gets two members of the Bureau: Edward McMillan-Scott (United Kingdom) and newcomer to that role Alexander Alvaro (Germany). Diana Wallis (UK) lost her spot in the process, after having been outmanoeuvered by McMillan-Scott inside the British Liberal Democrat delegation. Isabelle Durant (Belgium) keeps her vice-president seat for the Greens-EFA. The ECR’s British delegation, which took over the group presidency in December last year, will abandon its vice-president seat, currently held by Giles Chichester, to the benefit of Czech deputy Oldrich Vlasak.

The Bureau is made up of the EP president, the 14 vice-presidents and the five quaestors, with observer status. It guides Parliament’s internal functioning, taking care of the EP’s budget estimates, administrative and financial organisation and the Secretariat and its sub-departments. EP Secretary-General Klaus Welle works in close association with the Bureau.

Vote results

Gianni Pittella (S&D, Italy) 319 votes

Miguel Angel Martinez (S&D, Spain) 295

Anni Podimata (S&D, Greece) 281

Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP, Spain) 269

Georgios Papastamkos (EPP, Greece) 248

Roberta Agelilli (EPP, Italy) 246

Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria) 244

Edward McMillan-Scott (ALDE, UK) 239

Isabelle Durant (Greens-EFA, Belgium) 238

Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany) 235

Reiner Wieland (EPP, Germany) 230

Oldrich Vlasak (ECR, Czech Republic) 223

Jacek Protasiewicz (EPP, Poland) 206

László Surján (EPP, Hungary) 188