President of the EP

The European Parliament’s President is elected in a secret ballot of all MEPs at the start and mid-point of each five-year term, to serve for two and a half-years. The President’s role is to ensure proceedings are properly conducted, inter alia chairing plenary sessions and the main governing bodies, as well as to represent the European Parliament vis-à-vis the other EU institutions and the outside world more broadly. The President may delegate tasks or powers to the Vice-Presidents who make up the Bureau (see page 16). The graphic below shows the Parliament’s current President and all her predecessors since the first direct elections in 1979, with their political group and nationality.