Borrell heads for Chichester

In a little more than eight weeks' time, Josep Borrell will cease to be president of the European Parliament, so what does he do then? The Socialist MEP has been weighing up the options and seems to be heading for a clash with UK Conservatives. At issue is what committee chairmanship he might take. He is not desperate for the civil liberties committee, currently chaired by the French Liberal MEP Jean-Marie Cavada. And although the government in Madrid wants its man to take over the chairmanship of the budgets committee from Janusz Lewandowski, the Polish centre-right MEP, Borrell, who served as Spanish finance minister, has had his fill. Instead he has identified the industry, research and energy committee as one of the key posts for the next few years, with climate change and energy policy at the top of the political agenda. But under the d'Hondt system used in the Parliament to allocate prime posts, the UK Tories, with their 27 members, have first call and will be unwilling to give up the post currently held by UK Conservative Giles Chichester. The battle over committee chairs looks likely to simmer until January.
A curiosity: although the committee chairmanships are “in play”, the leadership of the Parliament's 34 delegations to third countries and international organisations will not be up for grabs until the assembly finishes its mandate in 2009.