Borrell Fontelles, Josep (1947 - )
Former Spanish Member of the European Parliament sitting with the socialist group S&D. Elected President of the European Parliament on 20 July 2004 with 388 votes. The other two candidates were Polish liberal (ALDE) Bronislav Geremek, who got 208 votes, and French communist (GUE/NGL) Francis Wurtz, who received 51 votes. As President, he succeeded the Irish liberal Pat Cox.
Borrell served for the first half of the five-year Presidency term since this was being shared between the European People's Party, EPP, and the S&D according to an agreement reached between both groups.
Borrell was elected for the first time as a Member of the European Parliament in the 2004 European elections. He then headed Spain's Socialist Party list, which secured 43% of the vote and 25 MEPs.
Between 1999 and 2004, he served as chair 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 the proposal for a European Constitution.
Links
Burrell’s website as former president of the European Parliament
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/....../president_borrell/default.htm