Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-03-07

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] European centre-right leaders to elect candidate for president of the European Commission

[01] European centre-right leaders to elect candidate for president of the European Commission

The EPP candidate for President of the EC will spearhead the EPP's EU-wide campaign leading up to the elections for the European Parliament in May 2014 and will appear in all debates with the candidates of the other political parties.

According to the Lisbon Treaty ( in 2009), the European Council (government leaders) must "take into account" the result of the EU elections when deciding on the Commission President.

The EPP had received two candidatures : ex-Eurogroup chief and former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and internal market Commissioner Michel Barnier (France). The former Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis withdrew his candidacy on Wednesday evening.

The EPP Political Assembly -- over 800 delegates with voting rights at the Congress -- will vote to elect the candidate on Friday, March 7.

The EPP is the largest political party of the centre-right, which currently includes 73 member-parties from 39 countries, the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, 12 EU and 6 non-EU heads of state and government, 13 members of the European Commission and the largest Group in the European Parliament.

The European People's Party will hold a statutory Summit of EPP heads of state and government and party leaders on Thursday evening.

The Summit will address the decisions of the extraordinary European Council, held earlier in the day to discuss the situation in Ukraine. The Summit will be chaired by EPP President Joseph Daul and will begin at 20:00 GMT.

The list of participants includes (in alphabetical order by surname): Nicos ANASTASIADES (Cyprus), Lars BARFOED (Denmark), Jose Manuel BARROSO (President of the European Commission), Traian BĂSESCU (Romania), Boyko BORISSOV (Bulgaria), Simon BUSUTTIL (Malta), Jean-François COPÉ (France), Ján FIGEĽ (Slovakia), Janez JANŠA (Slovenia), Jean-Claude JUNCKER (Luxembourg), Tomislav KARAMARKO (Croatia), Jyrki KATAINEN (Finland), Enda KENNY (Ireland), Andrius KUBILIUS (Lithuania), Angela MERKEL (Germany), Viktor ORBÁN (Hungary), Pedro PASSOS COELHO (Portugal), Mariano RAJOY (Spain), Urmas REINSALU (Estonia), Antonis SAMARAS (Greece), Michael SPINDELEGGER (Austria), Laimdota STRAUJUMA (Latvia), Donald TUSK (Poland), Sybrand VAN HAERSMA BUMA (Netherlands), and Herman VAN ROMPUY (President of the European Council).

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