BRUSSELS: The European Parliament has elected Mr Josep Borrell, a Spanish socialist, to succeed Mr Pat Cox as President for the next two and a half years. Mr Borrell, who is serving his first term as an MEP, won 388 votes, compared to 208 for the Polish liberal, Mr Bronislaw Geremek, and 51 for the French communist, Mr Francis Wurtz.
Mr Borrell's election came as part of a deal between the Parliament's two largest groups, the Socialists and the conservative European People's Party (EPP), that will see the EPP leader, Mr Hans-Gert Poettering, become President for two and a half years from 2007.
Mr Borrell praised Mr Cox for his term as President and his work to secure agreement on the EU's constitutional treaty and asked MEPs for their help during his own term.
"Thank you to those who have voted for me. I would call upon you to help me," Mr Borrell said.
A baker's son from Catalonia, Mr Borrell studied aeronautical engineering in Madrid and California before joining the Spanish Socialist Party and serving as transport minister under Mr Felipe Gonzales in the 1980s and early 1990s. Mr Borrell also served as minister for public works and minister for the environment before the Socialists lost power in 1996.
Mr Borrell became his party's leader in 1998 but resigned a year later over a corruption scandal involving former colleagues. Since then, Mr Borrell has taken a close interest in EU affairs and was one of Spain's parliamentary representatives at the Convention on the Future of Europe that drew up the constitutional treaty.
In his acceptance speech in Strasbourg yesterday, Mr Borrell identified the constitution as one of his priorities as President.
"My political responsibility is to do everything in my power for the European Parliament to help the ratification process . . . in particular in countries which are going to ratify it by referendum," he said.
The Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, predicted that Mr Borrell would be a successful and constructive President.
"Being President is a big challenge: he will have to guide the work of an institution that will feel the effects of enlargement, the Constitution's approval and major world issues more keenly than the other institutions - precisely because it is elected directly."