BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd July, 2019) Four politicians are running for the position of the European Parliament's president in the upcoming Wednesday election, the legislative body said in a statement.

"Four candidates are standing to become Parliament President in tomorrow's election, scheduled to start at 09.00 [07:00 GMT]," the European Parliament said on Tuesday.

The list of the candidates includes Ska Keller (the European Free Alliance, Germany), Sira Rego (the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, Spain), David-Maria Sassoli (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Italy) and Jan Zahradil (Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe, the Czech Republic).

"Electing its President is the first act of the newly constituted Parliament. The outgoing President Antonio Tajani will preside over the proceedings, assisted by eight tellers selected by lot on Tuesday at the opening of the session," the statement stressed.

The reshuffles in key EU bodies take place following the European Parliament elections, which were held on May 23-26. </s> The European Parliament will have its turn at filling a top EU post on Wednesday when lawmakers vote on a new president for the assembly.

Newly-elected MEPs, who had their inaugural session on Tuesday, will vote in a secret ballot to select a speaker for a two-and-a-half year term. To be elected, the next president will have to secure an absolute majority. Voting is likely to last for several rounds.

The vote comes on the heels of a difficult agreement reached by the EU's 28 national leaders on filling the bloc's top jobs that saw German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen nominated as the next European Commission president, although she was not a lead candidate picked by one of the blocs in Parliament.

European Council President Donald Tusk also recommended that Parliament choose a candidate from the center-left Socialists and Democrats bloc (S&D) for the first two-and-a-half year term, followed by a candidate from the center-rigth European People's Party (EPP) for the second term.

The EPP currently has the largest number of seats in Parliament, followed by the S&D — but both parties lost support in the European Parliament elections in May.

Many EU lawmakers criticized the leaders' nominations and it remains to be seen whether they will follow their recommendation in the vote on Wednesday.

Four candidates in the running

The first round of voting saw lawmakers choosing between four candidates for the European Parliament presidency.

The S&D candidate, Italian lawmaker David Sassoli, is the favorite going into the vote on Wednesday, after securing the support from the center-right EPP as well as the liberals.

He will face off against German Greens MEP Ska Keller, whose grouping in parliament made significant gains in elections in May.

Spain's Sira Rego is running on behalf of the United Left, while the European Conservatives and Reformists have put forward Czech lawmaker Jan Zahradil.

Von der Leyen is expected to travel to the French city of Strasbourg, where the European Parliament sits, in the afternoon on Wednesday to attend the session and likely try to win over support for her nomination as the head of the EU's executive arm.

MEPs will have the final say in the EU's top four jobs, as all nominees must be confirmed by the European Parliament. That vote has not been set yet, but is expected to occur in mid-July.

Every evening, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament opened for a new term on Tuesday with the highest number of women ever but short of three pro-independence Catalan members who were barred from joining as hundreds protested over their exclusion outside the building.

Further controversy arose when 29 members of Britain’s anti-EU Brexit Party turned their backs as the European Union anthem - Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” - was played live at the opening ceremony - a gesture that other lawmakers denounced as disgraceful and pathetic.

The parliament convened for the first time as national EU leaders gathered in Brussels for a third consecutive day to hash out who will get the bloc’s top jobs under the new mandate. EU-wide elections in May returned a fragmented 751-member parliament, which was set to elect its president on Wednesday.

Catalan separatist leaders Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comin and Oriol Junqueras have not been able to take their seats in Strasbourg as the Spanish electoral authority has not recognized them as members.

Puigdemont and Comin have lived in self-imposed exile since warrants were issued for their arrest in Spain after a failed bid for secession for Catalonia in 2017.

Instead of traveling to Spain to pledge allegiance to the Spanish constitution in person, as is required to take seats in the Strasbourg assembly, both sent in written statements of allegiance, which were not accepted.

Junqueras, imprisoned in Spain, was not allowed to leave jail to take the pledge and, along with Puigdemont and Comin, was left off Spain’s list of members, which numbered 51 rather than 54.

Hundreds gathered outside the parliament in Strasbourg, many waving pro-independence Catalan flags, to protest against the exclusion of the three Catalan separatist leaders.

Protesters hold Catalan flags during a demonstration asking for the Parliament inclusion of the 3 Catalan elected MEP's Carles Puigdemont, Oriol Junqueras and Toni Comin in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 2, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

BAN BEING CHALLENGED

The EU General Court on Monday dismissed an application by Puigdemont and Comin to take their seats at the start of the session while challenges to decisions by the Spanish authorities and the parliament to bar them are considered.

“Any future parliament president would certainly have to also look into this, because it’s also a matter of how do you defend the rights of those who have been elected into the European Parliament,” Ska Keller, co-leader of the Greens/European Free Alliance party, of which Junqueras is a member, told reporters.

The seats of the Catalan separatist leaders will remain empty until they either take their oaths or leave their places to other members of their list. Should they become members of the European Parliament, they would receive immunity.

The Brexit Party kicked off the term by gathering outside the parliament holding “BeLeave in Britain” signs and marching into the chamber en masse. They turned their backs when the EU anthem was played.

From the other end of Britain’s political spectrum, several lawmakers from the strongly pro-EU Liberal Democrats wore yellow T-shirts marked “Stop Brexit” and “Bollocks to Brexit”.

Britons voted narrowly in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU but the departure has been delayed by deadlock in the London parliament over the terms of Brexit.

There is one less political party represented in the new EU parliament as the European Freedom and Direct Democracy - largely made up of Italy’s 5-Star Movement and the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), whose leader, Nigel Farage, now heads the Brexit Party - has disbanded.

Slideshow (3 Images)

Instead, the Brexit Party’s 29 members and the 5-Star’s 14 are among the 55 considered unaffiliated in the parliament.

To form a political group in the chamber, 25 members from at least a quarter of the EU’s nations have to sign on.

The new parliament also registered its highest number of women yet with 40% of the members, as the bloc faces pressure to improve the gender balance in its top jobs. </s> Between Thursday and Sunday, millions will choose who represents them at the European Parliament (EP), the European Union's (EU) parliamentary institution directly elected by citizens aged 18 or older.

The EU is often considered an obscure and technocratic body - somewhere between a nation-state and an international organisation such as the United Nations. Many have lost faith in its ability to improve their lives.

But with Brexit looming and nationalist populism on the rise, this year's election - a political event held every five years - is seen by many as decisive for its future.

Britain and the Netherlands kick off voting on Thursday.

Here is what you need to know:

What is European Parliament and how will elections work?

The EP is effectively the lower house of the EU's legislative branch. It can't propose legislation - that's the European Commission's prerogative - or decide on a budget like a regular parliament. But all EU laws must be approved by a majority of EP members (MEPs) to then be applied in all 28 member states.

Originally, the EP's powers were limited. But as the EU grew and its member states shared more responsibilities, the EP became co-legislator with the European Council.

Elections are held at the national level and respect each country's electoral tradition. The British and the Dutch will be first to vote on May 23, followed by the Irish on May 24, and the Maltese, Latvians and the Slovaks on May 25. Most countries will vote on May 26, a Sunday. The minimum age to vote is 18, except in Austria and Malta where it's 16.

There are 751 seats, but this number will go down to 705 after Britain exits the bloc.

Each member state is allocated a certain number of representatives, or MEPs, depending on their total population.

Germany, the most populous EU member, will send 96 MEPs to Brussels, whereas Malta and Luxembourg only get to elect six.

Every country votes on the principle of proportional representation, meaning that each political party or list of candidates gets a number of seats equivalent to their share of the vote.

A party needs to gather at least 5% of the votes in one country to enter the European Parliament (EP).

There are eight pan-European political groups that MEPs can choose to join.

It takes 25 MEPs from seven different countries to form a political group.

The two largest groups are the centre-right European People Party (EPP) and the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D). The right-wing eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is the third largest.

Current EP President Antonio Tajani, an Italian, is with the EPP.

For the first time since 1979, the centre-left and the centre-right could lose their majority and wave goodbye to their ruling coalition.

"The centre-left will recede again, the centre-right should minimise their losses, and the far right will continue to rise. But the big question is: what will happen at the centre?," said Amandine Crespy, a professor of European studies at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

In terms of voter turnout, between 1979 and 2014, it fell from 62% to only 42%. This year's projections don't look optimistic.

Why is the 2019 vote important?

There are two factors. The first is that the vote takes place amid Brexit, which marks the first time a country will leave the EU.

"There is now a feeling of urgency, Europe is going through an existential crisis," said Crespy.

The second is that the vote could also be divisive because of an expected rise in anti-EU forces, or Eurosceptics.

"Those parties oppose the principle of a democratic EU and want to change it from within," said Sylvain Kahn, a professor of European studies at Science Po Paris.

According to Shahin Vallee, a researcher at the European Institute of LSE, "They will set the tone of the European debates for the next five years.

"In May, we will be able to tell what direction the EU will take on a whole number of issues, from the regulation of the GAFAs (giant tech firms) to its attitude towards China, and of course, its migration policy."

How will Brexit affect the vote?

The UK was due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019. But it didn't. The EU Council decided that if the UK doesn't leave before May 22, it should take part in the European elections like any other member state.

"It will turn into a second referendum," said Crespy, "creating an impossible situation in the EP and other European institutions".

Until the UK leaves, it remains a rightful EU member with its EU commissioner, voting rights in the EU Council, and its 73 MEPs, including far-right Nigel Farage - chair of the populist Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy political group.

Vallee fears the UK's participation in the vote would lead to a "one foot in, one foot out [situation] which would most certainly paralyse the already fragile functioning of the union's institutions".

Will the elections affect the EU's influence on the world stage?

Europe is often seen as an economic giant but political dwarf. The EU remains a political structure in the making.

"Europe's weakness is first and foremost political," said Vallee.

Between 2012 and 2014, during the Eurozone crisis, Vallee was an adviser to then-president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy.

"The European Union suffers from two evils," he said. "It doesn't have an identified government, able to make strategic decisions like the United States or China. And it lacks democratic legitimacy because the EP is too weak."

Since the creation of the EU in the 1950s, a fierce debate on the notion of sovereignty has agitated the continent.

"The big question is: Will we be more efficient and resilient to cope with world's challenges by uniting with other countries or not? One for all and all for one like the musketeers or by yourself?" said Kahn.

"We need to create European sovereignty. Sovereignty is to be understood as the capacity to act on the world's course; therefore we need a real European government and parliament, independent from the member states."

KEEP UPDATED on the latest news by subscribing to our FREE newsletter. </s> BRUSSELS — The Latest on the European Parliament elections taking place Saturday (all times local):

A far-right party in Slovakia that openly admires the country’s wartime Nazi puppet state could win seats in the European Parliament for the first time.

Slovaks are among four countries voting Saturday in the Europe-wide vote, which finishes Sunday.

Polls favor the leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, the senior member of Slovakia’s current coalition government to win the most votes.

Polls suggest People’s Party Our Slovakia, a far-right party that has 14 seats in Slovakia’s parliament, will win seats in the European legislature for the first time.

Party members use Nazi salutes, blame Roma for crime, consider NATO a terror group and want the country out of the alliance and the European Union.

The election reflects a continental struggle between nationalists who want to wrest power back from the EU and moderates who want to make the EU stronger.

Voters in Slovakia, Malta, Latvia and the Czech Republic are casting ballots in European Parliament elections.

The stakes for the European Union are especially high in this year’s elections, which are taking place over four days and involve all 28 EU nations.

Many predict nationalists and far-right groups will gain ground. They would try to use a larger presence in the legislature to claw back power from the EU for their national governments.

More moderate parties want to cement closer ties among countries in the EU.

Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands have already voted. The Czech Republic started voting Friday and continues Saturday. Slovakia, Malta and Latvia are holding their European Parliament elections Saturday — and all the other nations vote Sunday.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> BRUSSELS — The Latest on the European Parliament elections taking place Saturday (all times local):

A far-right party in Slovakia that openly admires the country's wartime Nazi puppet state could win seats in the European Parliament for the first time.

Slovaks are among four countries voting Saturday in the Europe-wide vote, which finishes Sunday.

Polls favor the leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, the senior member of Slovakia's current coalition government to win the most votes.

Polls suggest People's Party Our Slovakia, a far-right party that has 14 seats in Slovakia's parliament, will win seats in the European legislature for the first time.

Party members use Nazi salutes, blame Roma for crime, consider NATO a terror group and want the country out of the alliance and the European Union.

The election reflects a continental struggle between nationalists who want to wrest power back from the EU and moderates who want to make the EU stronger.

Voters in Slovakia, Malta, Latvia and the Czech Republic are casting ballots in European Parliament elections.

The stakes for the European Union are especially high in this year's elections, which are taking place over four days and involve all 28 EU nations.

Many predict nationalists and far-right groups will gain ground. They would try to use a larger presence in the legislature to claw back power from the EU for their national governments.

More moderate parties want to cement closer ties among countries in the EU.

Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands have already voted. The Czech Republic started voting Friday and continues Saturday. Slovakia, Malta and Latvia are holding their European Parliament elections Saturday — and all the other nations vote Sunday. </s> The European Parliament filled its top EU post on Wednesday, with lawmakers electing Italy's David-Maria Sassoli as the new president of the assembly.

Sassoli, a lawmaker with the center-left Socialists and Democrats bloc (S&D) secured an absolute majority with 345 votes in the second round of voting.

Czech lawmaker Jan Zahradil, with the euroskeptic European Conservatives and Reformists bloc, came in second followed by German Greens candidate Ska Keller and Spain's Sira Rego who came in last.

Newly-elected MEPs, who had their inaugural session on Tuesday, voted in a secret ballot to select the new president who will serve a two-and-a-half year term.

The vote comes on the heels of a difficult agreement reached by the EU's 28 national leaders on filling the bloc's top jobs that saw German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen nominated as the next European Commission president, even though she was not a lead candidate picked by one of the blocs in Parliament.

Backlash over EU job nominations

Many EU lawmakers criticized the leaders' nominations, but ended up following their recommendation in the vote on Wednesday.

European Council President Donald Tusk earlier recommended that Parliament choose a candidate from the center-left S&D for the first two-and-a-half year term, followed by a candidate from the center-rigth European People's Party (EPP) for the second term.

The EPP currently has the largest number of seats in Parliament, followed by the S&D — but both parties lost support in the European Parliament elections in May.

Italy's Sassoli was favored to win, after the S&D lawmaker got the backing of the center-right EPP as well as the liberals.

Von der Leyen is expected to travel to the French city of Strasbourg, where the European Parliament sits, on Wednesday afternoon to attend the session, and likely try to win support for her nomination as the head of the EU's executive arm.

MEPs will have the final say in the EU's top four jobs, as all nominees must be confirmed by the European Parliament. That vote has not been set yet, but is expected to occur in mid-July.

rs/jm (AFP, Reuters)

Every evening, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on the European Parliament elections taking place Saturday (all times local):

A far-right party in Slovakia that openly admires the country's wartime Nazi puppet state could win seats in the European Parliament for the first time.

Slovaks are among four countries voting Saturday in the Europe-wide vote, which finishes Sunday.

Polls favor the leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, the senior member of Slovakia's current coalition government to win the most votes.

Polls suggest People's Party Our Slovakia, a far-right party that has 14 seats in Slovakia's parliament, will win seats in the European legislature for the first time.

Party members use Nazi salutes, blame Roma for crime, consider NATO a terror group and want the country out of the alliance and the European Union.

The election reflects a continental struggle between nationalists who want to wrest power back from the EU and moderates who want to make the EU stronger.

Voters in Slovakia, Malta, Latvia and the Czech Republic are casting ballots in European Parliament elections.

The stakes for the European Union are especially high in this year's elections, which are taking place over four days and involve all 28 EU nations.

Many predict nationalists and far-right groups will gain ground. They would try to use a larger presence in the legislature to claw back power from the EU for their national governments.

More moderate parties want to cement closer ties among countries in the EU.

Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands have already voted. The Czech Republic started voting Friday and continues Saturday. Slovakia, Malta and Latvia are holding their European Parliament elections Saturday — and all the other nations vote Sunday. </s> Italian conservative Antonio Tajani has been elected the new president of the European Parliament.

Mr Tajani, 63, is a former spokesman for Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and an ex-European commissioner.

He defeated another Italian, Gianni Pitella, and will take over from Germany's Martin Schulz.

The European Parliament has the power to block or amend EU laws, and will have the final say on whether to approve a Brexit deal with the UK.

The contest ran to the maximum four rounds.

Mr Tajani's European People's Party group benefited from a coalition with the parliament's liberals, who hope to curb the influence of anti-EU populists.

The election of Mr Tajani puts the centre-right in charge of the three main EU institutions - the European Commission, Council and Parliament.
The Ninth European Parliament starts its term.