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#Schulz: Martin Schulz to stand down as European Parliament President

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Martin-Schulz-014This morning Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament, announced that we would not be running for a third term as President of the European Parliament. Schulz will have served for five years (each term is two and a half years). He also announced that the would run for the German Bundestag, as head of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD).

While Gianni Pitella MEP, leader of the European Parliament’s social democrats (S&D) issued a statement saying that Schutz was once of the greatest leaders of the European Parliament, he argued that the future European Parliament President should be from a different political family than  the European Peoples Party (EPP – largely Christian democratic group).

The EPP are the largest party in the European Parliament, but because of what Pitella decribes as a "a right-wing monopoly on the EU Institutions (it) would be unacceptable" to appoint an EPP MEP as the next President. The right-wing monopoly referred to is the post of European Commission and European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, who both come from the EPP group.

Presidents of the European Parliament generally have a lower profile than the other Presidents, so the discussions usually aren’t as charged on who will take office. The Parliament is also very consensual and MEPs will be looking for someone who is well liked on both sides.

At the moment the two main candidates are Irish MEP, Mairead McGuinness – currently a Vice-President, and French MEP, Alain Lamassoure who is known as a political heavy weight who has been particularly active on finance, banking and taxation issues.

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