Schultz wins second term as Parliament president

German Socialist Martin Schulz became the first person to be elected president of the European Parliament for the second time when he got more than 50% of the votes in the first round.

He will serve a second two and a half year term before handing over to a nominee from the European People’s Party, the centre right group to which Fine Gael belongs, as part of a post-election pact.

Around 25% of the new parliament are eurosceptics. The UK Independence Party did not put forward a candidate and its MEPs stood with their backs turned during the playing of the EU anthem, ‘Ode to Joy’. Their candidate for vice president, a member of Italy’s Five Star Beppe Grillo party, was the only one of the 15 for the 14 posts that failed to be elected.

Schulz, made famous by Italian former premier Silvio Berlusconi linking him to a “capo of a concentration camp”, had hoped to secure the job of president of the European Commission, being the lead candidate for the Socialists in May’s parliament elections.

However, the EPP secured a greater percentage of the seats in the EP, giving their lead candidate, Jean-Claude Juncker, first opportunity to win the support of member states — which he did last Friday.

Schulz, a 58 year old former book-shop owner, had hoped to become Germany’s European Commissioner but was blocked by chancellor Angela Merkel and her coalition government partner, Schulz’s own Socialist party.

Merkel is expected to reappoint the current German commissioner who is from her own party.

Some of the MEPs were critical of the procedure saying it was a ‘stitch-up’ between the big parties, and accused the member states of deciding who would be the Parliament president as part of an elaborate carve-up of top posts in the EU’s institutions.

The job comes with a salary of €96,000 a year before tax — the same as the MEPs — but while they get an allowance of around €300 for each day they attend parliament, he receives that for every day of the year. This amounts to €109,500 which is untaxed. He also has a car and driver, and a staff of 30, a suite of offices, a private dining room for entertaining guests and receipted travel expenses.