Merkel ally nominated EU assembly chief

Strasbourg (France), Nov 15: A key ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, conservative Hans-Gert Poettering, was nominated today as the next president of the increasingly influential European Parliament.

Poettering's candidacy was given the green light by his party at a meeting today and he is expected to be endorsed by the full parliament in January, party sources said.

The floor leader of the European People's Party (EPP), the assembly's largest political group, is unlikely to face serious opposition.

The Socialists, the second-largest caucus, intend to stick to a rotation agreement struck in 2004 and to back the EPP candidate when the assembly's 732 members vote on January 16, party leader Martin Schulz said.

''Mr Poettering is a very experienced colleague. I find him to be an individual of high integrity,'' Schulz told reporters.

The liberals want the full parliament to meet in Brussels each week to discuss the outcome of the weekly meeting of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.

''We desperately need greater and more effective parliamentary scrutiny of what the executive is doing,'' liberal floor leader Graham Watson said.

But Poettering was cool on rushing into major reforms.

''I am open to these ideas but we need to experiment a little,'' Poettering said.

Poettering, leader of the EU's most powerful political group, including the governing parties of France and Germany, would replace Spanish Socialist Josep Borrell, who was elected at the start of the assembly's five-year term under the deal.

Parliament has gained growing sway as co-legislator with the council of EU governments on a range of policies from internal market rules to the environment and transport.

It has brokered compromises in the past year on issues such as the opening of services to cross-border competition.

Reuters