Parliament vice-president

The Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament has chosen Ioan Mircea Pascu, a centre-left Romanian MEP, to replace Corina Cretu as a vice-president of the Parliament.

Cretu was elected one of the Parliament’s 14 vice-presidents in July, but last week left the Parliament to become Romania’s European commissioner. Under the Parliament’s unofficial system of sharing out senior posts, the S&D group is still entitled to the spot.

The formality of an election will happen during the mini-plenary session in Brussels on 12 November. Pascu, 65, was minister of defence in the cabinet of prime minister Adrian Nastase. He became an MEP on 1 January 2007.

Cretu’s seat in the Parliament is being taken by Emilian Pavel.