MID-TERM CHANGES IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 001175

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/ERA AND H

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/05/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL PINR EUN
SUBJECT: MID-TERM CHANGES IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT


Classified By: POLOFF COURTNEY R. NEMROFF FOR REASONS 1.5 (D) AND (E)

1.(SBU) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: The European Parliament (EP)
mid-term leadership changes of January 2007 provide a new
opportunity for us to pursue deeper engagement in pursuit of
U.S. interests. The new group at the top is broadly pro-U.S.
and wants to strengthen the transatlantic relationship, with
one notable exception in German Communist Helmuth Markov, who
took over as head of the International Trade Committee.
German Christian Democrat MEP Hans-Gert Poettering was
elected as the new EP President; French MEP Joseph Daul
replaced Hans-Gert Poettering at the head of the EPP-ED
Group; and Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski replaced Elmar
Brok as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. The
transition from Brok to Saryusz-Wolski involved a minor power
struggle, with Brok forced out despite trying to engage
German Chancellor Merkel on his behalf.

2.(SBU) The new EP leadership will likely seek to increase
dialogue with the United States on strategic issues,
including the war on terror, energy security, Europe's near
neighborhood with Russia, and trade. One early signal of
their commitment and ability to strengthen relations with the
United States will be in the language of the resolution on
transatlantic relations the EP is expected to adopt April 26.
The domination of "new countries" in the leadership of the
Foreign Affairs Committee and the new Chairman's personal
interest in the EU's eastern neighbors and energy policy will
likely result in an increase in EP resolutions on Ukraine and
Belarus and regular visits from officials from the Caucasus
to the EP. While the Poles and Germans will continue to
disagree on Russia policy, the new Chairman of Foreign
Affairs will promote the Polish side of that argument. Early
and carefully focused engagement with the new EP leadership
could help us shift our dialogue with the EP away from an
almost exclusive focus on bilateral irritants (renditions,
data privacy, etc.) to a more substantive dialogue on
strategic issues where we can find some common agreement.
This dialogue could in turn allow our allies in the EPP-ED to
point to positive developments in the bilateral relationship
to counter the focus from the left on issues that divide us.
END SUMMARY AND COMMENT

POETTERING BECOMES NEW EP PRESIDENT
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3.(U) German Christian Democrat MEP Hans-Gert Poettering,
Chairman of the center-right EPP-ED group since 1999, was
elected as the new EP President January 16 with a comfortable
majority. He replaces Spanish Socialist MEP Josep Borrell.
Poettering will be EP President for two and a half years,
until the next European elections in June 2009. His election
was basically guaranteed, as the EPP-ED and the PES
(Socialist Group) had agreed to power-share the presidency at
the outset of the current Parliament session in 2004, with
Poettering informally designated as Borrell's successor.
According to EP contacts, Poettering intentionally chose this
later half of the five-year EP Presidency in the power-share
deal so that the start of his presidency would coincide with
the German Presidency of the EU. His German CDU connection
provides him with good optics (he makes a point of showing
visitors the first signature in the "guest book" he keeps in
his office - that of German Chancellor Merkel). He is also
using his links to Merkel and her advisors to boost his
influence, making inroads into areas where the EP president's
role has been limited, or non-existent, in the past. In
particular, he is trying to play a significant role in the EU
institutional reform debate and is lobbying to participate in
the G8 parliamentary meeting.

4.(C) Poettering has been an MEP since the first direct
European elections in 1979. He is a respected figure in the
EP and was instrumental in bringing the EPP (Christian
Democrats) and the ED parties (British conservatives and the
Czech Civic Democratic Platform - ODS) together into the
combined EPP-ED, making it the strongest group in the
Parliament. EP leadership, Commission President Barroso, and
German Chancellor Merkel welcomed Poettering's election,
calling him a politician of compromise who could work well
with all parties. Poettering is a strong supporter of a
federal Europe and was a vocal advocate of bringing eastern
European countries into the EU, but he is opposed to Turkey's
membership.

5.(C) Poettering considers himself a transatlanticist and
favors strong cooperation with the U.S. but has always been
openly critical of the U.S. on issues like Guantanamo and the
death penalty. He raised both issues during his first
address to the Chamber on February 13. Poettering is also a
protocol-conscious politician who has made clear to Embassy
officers both his desire to travel to the United States in

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his new role and his expectation that he be received at


levels "appropriate" to his rank while he is there. We
believe it would be useful for Poettering to travel to
Washington to meet with key Congressional leadership as well
as senior administration officials. It is worth our time to
engage Poettering as he builds the power of the EP presidency
as an institution.

DAUL REPLACES POETTERING AS EPP-ED LEADER
--------------


6. (C) Replacing Poettering as the leader of the largest
political group in the EP is Joseph Daul, a French farmer and
former chairman of the EP Agricultural Affairs committee.
Four candidates ran for the post and Daul faced a tight race
against Swedish MEP Gunnar Hokmark, ultimately elected by 134
votes against 115. Daul had the support of French and German
members, while Hokmark was supported by most new member
states and the British conservatives. As Daul himself noted
in an interview in "Le Monde", both French President Chirac
and presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy backed him in his
bid for the position. A traditional Catholic, Daul is a
typical "old Europe" politician and a staunch defender of
"European agriculture" but has professed openness to changes
in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and to WTO
agreements. He is strongly opposed to Turkey's accession to
the EU.


7. (C) Daul strikes us as a relatively inexperienced leader
who lacks a solid understanding of key international
political issues. He tends to steer conversations back to
his area of expertise: agriculture and the politics of his
local village (he was mayor of Pfettisheim in the Alsatian
region of France). Daul does not speak English well and
relies on an interpreter in meetings. However, he has
stressed the value he places on strong transatlantic
relations and is likely a leader who we can help shape,
especially now at the beginning of his tenure in this
influential position. During his first meeting with USEU
Ambassador Gray February 14, Daul stressed his desire to work
with the United States and announced that he planned to visit
Washington in July 2007. We see potential to work with Daul
on the Balkans, Iran, and other big picture strategic goals.

"NEW EUROPE" LEADING THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
-------------- --------------


8. (SBU) Polish Christian Democrat MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski
was formally elected January 31 to replace German Christian
Democrat MEP Elmar Brok as Chairman of the European
Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET). In addition,
three out of the four vice chairmen of the committee come
from new EU member states: Czech Socialist MEP Libor Roucek,
a former Romanian government spokesman; Polish Liberal MEP
Janusz Onyszkiewicz, a former Polish defense minister; and
Romanian Socialist MEP Mircea Pascu, also a former defense
Minister of his country. Michael Gahler, a German Christian
Democrat, is the only vice chairman from "old Europe". All of
these MEPs, including Michael Gahler, have shown positive
attitudes towards the U.S. and are likely to promote good
transatlantic relations.


9. (SBU) Committee leadership changes throughout the EP were
delayed because of controversy surrounding the Foreign
Affairs Committee chair. Elmar Brok, who was compelled to
give up his seat according to internal EP rules on seat
distribution, tried to resist by asking German Chancellor
Merkel and others to lobby on his behalf. The EPP-ED group
ultimately decided Brok had to go, marking the end of an era
for the EP, as Brok has chaired the committee since 1999.


10. (SBU) The new Chairman, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, has been an
EP Vice President since the European elections of 2004. He
is a former Polish Minister for European Affairs (1991-1996
and 2000-2001) and is the Vice Rector of the College of
Europe. Saryusz-Wolski was the chief advisor on EU affairs to
then Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek in 1999. His
stubbornness in negotiating his country's accession agreement
with the EU is legendary. Having earned himself the nickname
of Poland's "Mr. Europe", Saryusz-Wolski left politics in the
autumn of 2001 when the Buzek government fell. He returned
to politics in 2004 with the hopes of becoming Poland's
candidate for European Commissioner but the post went to
Danuta Hubner, and Saryusz-Wolski was instead elected as an
MEP. Although a transatlanticist, as most conservative Polish
politicians, Saryusz-Wolski appears to be more focused
eastward. He is a strong supporter of a possible EU future
for Ukraine. During a meeting with USEU Ambassador Gray on
February 14, he stressed the danger of Russia's energy
policy, calling for the United States and the EU to cooperate
on solutions to bypass Russia, possibly by building an

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alternative pipeline through Turkey, and emphasized Russia's
negative role in the Middle East and Iran.

GERMAN COMMUNIST TO CHAIR THE TRADE COMMITTEE
-------------- -


11. (U) The fight for the Chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs
Committee was not the only major change in EP committee
leaderships. While the Polish Christian Democrats took over
the prestigious Foreign Affairs seat, they lost the less
visible but most powerful Budget committee chairmanship to
the German Christian-Democrat MEP Reimer Boege. Former EP
President, Spanish socialist Josep Borrell, wanted the
Chairmanship of the Development committee and got it,
replacing Italian communist Luisa Morgantini. The Communists
received in exchange the International Trade Committee
Chairmanship held previously by the Spanish Socialist Enrique
Baron Crespo. Helmut Markov, a German Communist, is the new
committee chair. The German delegation of the EPP-ED also
lost the chair of the powerful Environment committee (in
charge of key issues such as REACH legislation and biotech)
to the Czech delegation. Miroslav Ouzky, a medical doctor
without extensive political experience, will chair this key
committee.

Tensions in the EPP-ED Group
--------------


12. (SBU) As exposed by the tight race between Daul and
Hokmark and the fight for the Foreign Affairs Committee
chairmanship between Brok and Saryusz-Wolski, there are tense
undercurrents in the EPP-ED, which play out in a number of
ways. First, between the EPP and ED components - the British
conservatives have announced their willingness to leave the
EPP-ED after Ehe 2009 elections; second, between the "old"
and "new" member states (with the greatest tensions evident
between Germany and Poland); and third, between the "social
liberals" and the "free-marketeers." The last two categories
overlap, according to an EPP-ED staffer, as center-right
parties in the 12 new countries support full market
liberalization while the old countries defend a stronger
"social" tradition. Daul announced at his first press
conference his goal of achieving better group unity and
presented himself as a man of compromise who could achieve
this aim. If Daul fails at that task, and if the UK
Conservatives carry through on their threat to leave after
the 2009 elections, it could mean a loss of influence for the
EPP-ED after 2009. Depending on election results, it could
even mean the Socialists regain their position as the
strongest political group in the EP. The departure of
British Conservatives could also potentially mean a larger
"euroskeptic" camp that could become a strong group in size.
This is more likely if disparate parties manage to find a
common platform and if the growth of euroskepticism in Europe
is confirmed in the next election.

MCKINLEY


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