“The Parliament needs a President who identifies with the values for which we have committed ourselves to politics: the centrality of the human being, freedom, solidarity and subsidiarity,” Italian MEP Antonio Tajani writes to his fellow MEPs announcing his candidature for the Presidency of the European Parliament.
In 2014, Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia, EPP) was elected First Vice-President of the European Parliament on the first ballot, receiving 452 votes from across many political groups.
He was also Commissioner for Transport, from 2008 to 2010 when he initiated the new EU Regulation on Passenger rights. From 2010 to 2014 as Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, he directed European initiatives on the real economy (services, professionals, manufacturing industry, SMEs, agriculture, fisheries, tourism). In this context, he promoted a strategy for an “Industrial Renaissance for Europe.”
Antonio Tajani decided to give back in November 2014, 468,000 euros which he was entitled to receive as a former European Commissioner. In the letter written by Tajani and addressed to Barroso, then President of the European Commission, he said that “in difficult time, the politicians should give the example of sobriety and solidarity to the European citizens who are obliged to take sacrifices.”
His main contenders within European People’s Party (EPP) will be Irish MEP McGuinness and French MEP Lamassoure.
Vote of the EPP group is set on 13 December in Strasbourg.
