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Borrell Fontelles, Josep (1947 - )

Spanish MEP Josep Borrell Fontelles (PES), President of the EU Parliament (Photo: EP)

Spanish Member of the EU Parliament sitting with the socialist group (PES/PSE). Elected President of the EU Parliament on 20 July 2004 with 388 votes. The other two candidates were Polish liberal (ALDE) Bronislav Geremek, with 208 votes, and French communist (GUE/NGL) Francis Wurtz, with 51 votes. As President he succeeded the Irish liberal Pat Cox.

He served for the first half of the five-year Presidency term since this is being shared between the European People's Party (EPP/ED Group) and the PES/PSE according to an agreement reached between both groups, which hold 277 and 218 seats, respectively, of the 785-member EU Parliament.

An economist by profession, Borrell was elected for the first time as a Member of the EU Parliament in the 2004 European elections when he headed Spain's Socialist Party list, which secured 43% of the vote and 25 MEPs. Between 1999 and 2004 he served as chairman of the Spanish Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs. He represented the Spanish Parliament as a member of the Convention on the Future of Europe in 2002-2003, which drafted a European Constitution.

Josep Borrell Fontelles was born in La Pobla de Segur, Spain, on 24 April 1947. He is divorced and has two children.

Borrell's website as former president of the European Parliament  http://www.europarl.europa.eu/....../president_borrell/default.htm