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President Of The European Parliament




The President of the European Parliament oversees all the activities of the European Parliament and its constituent bodies. He or she presides over its Plenary sittings and chairs the meetings of the Bureau and Conference Of Presidents . He or she represents Parliament in all external relations, particularly International Relations . The President's role is similar to that of a Speaker in a National Parliament .

The Bureau is the regulatory body responsible for Parliament's Budget and for administrative matters. It consists of the President, fourteen '''Vice-Presidents''', and six ''' Quaestor s''' who are responsible for administrative matters relating directly to MEP s. All the members of the Bureau are elected for a period of 30 months, elections being held at the start of and midway through each five-year parliamentary term.

The Conference Of Presidents Of The European Parliament is made up of the President of Parliament and the Political Group chairmen, and is the body responsible for Parliament's political organisation.


LIST OF PRESIDENTS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT


Pre-election Presidents 1952–1979



Post-election Presidents, 1979–present



ELECTION OF PRESIDENTS

The President requires an overall majority of votes cast in order to be elected. If this is not attained on the first ballot, new candidates can join the second and third ballots, but a fourth ballot is confined to the top two candidates from the third. 14 Vice Presidents are elected at the same time. Duties of Vice Presidents (europarl.europa.eu)

There is usually an agreement between two of the three major parties to share the presidency, it being split into two half-terms. For example in the current 6th term, the European People's Party supported the Party Of European Socialists candidate for the first term ( 2004 - 2007 ), and vice versa for the second ( 2007 - 2009 ). During the election of the President, the plenary is presided over by the oldest member of the Parliament, from 2004 this has been Giovanni Berlinguer .


6th term

Vice Presidents
'''Elected (unopposed) in order of precedence;'''
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