President of the European Parliament

The **President of the European Parliament** is the head of the European Parliament. He or she also represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally. The President has to sign that EU laws and the EU budget can become valid.

Presidents serve two-and-a-half-year terms. This time is normally divided between the two major political parties of the European Parliament. There have been twenty-eight Presidents, since the Parliament was created in 1952. Thirteen of whom have served since the first Parliamentary election in 1979. Two Presidents have been women and most have come from the older member states.

## List of Elected President of the European Parliament

|width=1%|N.|width=10%|Portrait|width=15%|President|width=8%|State|width=13%|Took office|width=13%|Left office|width=10%|Party|widht=10% colspan=2|Group|width=5%|Election|width=5%|Refs|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Simone Veil**|rowspan=2||17 July 1979|19 January 1982|rowspan=2|UDF|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Liberal Democrats|rowspan=4 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|1979|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Piet Dankert**|rowspan=2||19 January 1982|24 July 1984|rowspan=2|PvdA|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Socialists|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Pierre Pflimlin**|rowspan=2||24 July 1984|20 January 1987|rowspan=2|UDF / RPR|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=4 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|1984|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**C. Henry Plumb**|rowspan=2||20 January 1987|25 July 1989|rowspan=2|Conservative|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European Democrats|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Enrique Barón Crespo**|rowspan=2||25 July 1989|21 January 1992|rowspan=2|PSOE|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Socialists|rowspan=4 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|1989|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Egon Klepsch**|rowspan=2||21 January 1992|19 July 1994|rowspan=2|CDU|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Klaus Hänsch**|rowspan=2||19 July 1994|14 January 1997|rowspan=2|SPD|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Party of European Socialists|rowspan=4 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|1994|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**José María Gil-Robles**|rowspan=2||14 January 1997|20 July 1999|rowspan=2|PP|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Nicole Fontaine**|rowspan=2||20 July 1999|15 January 2002|rowspan=2|UMP|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=4 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|1999|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Pat Cox**|rowspan=2||15 January 2002|20 July 2004|rowspan=2|Independent|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Liberal Democrats|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Josep Borrell**|rowspan=2||20 July 2004|16 January 2007|rowspan=2|PSOE|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Party of European Socialists|rowspan=4 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|2004|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Hans-Gert Pöttering**|rowspan=2||16 January 2007|14 July 2009|rowspan=2|CDU|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Jerzy Buzek**|rowspan=2||14 July 2009|17 January 2012|rowspan=2|PO|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=3 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|2009|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Martin Schulz**|rowspan=2||17 January 2012|17 January 2017|rowspan=2|SPD|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Socialists & Democrats|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||rowspan=3 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|2014|||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Antonio Tajani**|rowspan=2||17 January 2017|3 July 2019|rowspan=2|FI|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**David Sassoli**|rowspan=2||3 July 2019|11 January 2022†|rowspan=2|PD|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Socialists & Democrats|rowspan=4 bgcolor=#EEEEEE|2019|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|**Roberta Metsola**|rowspan=2||18 January 2022|Incumbent|rowspan=2|PN|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|European People's Party|rowspan=2||||||||||||||||||
|colspan=2 bgcolor=#EEEEEE||||||||||||||||||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: President
- **body**: the European Parliament
- **insignia**: Europarl logo.svg
- **insigniasize**: 150px
- **insigniacaption**: Logo of the Parliament
- **flag**: Flag of Europe.svg
- **flagsize**: 130px
- **flagcaption**: Flag of Europe
- **image**: Official portrait of Roberta Metsola (cropped).jpg
- **incumbent**: Roberta Metsola
- **incumbentsince**: 18 January 2022
- **department**: European Parliament
- **style**: President
- **status**: Presiding officer
- **member of**: European Parliament
- **residence**: Louise Weiss building
- **seat**: Strasbourg, France
- **appointer**: European Parliament
- **termlength**: 2.5 years, renewable once
- **formation**: 1952 / 1958
- **inaugural**: Paul Henri Spaak / Robert Schuman
- **deputy**: Vice-Presidents of the European Parliament