The new president of the European Parliament

Today, I am first going to meet with Bill Gates to talk about the future of development aid. Later I will come together with Martin Schulz who has been elected as the President of the European Parliament for the next two and a half years. It was a great pleasure to work with my good friend Jerzy Buzek during the last years, but I am confident that the cooperation between President Schulz and me will also be good and based on mutual understanding. In his opening speech he indicated that he intends to strengthen the position of the European Parliament. This is his role as long as this means that the Parliament does take into account the common responsibility we have to make good decisions for Europe's citizens. You can listen to our joint press conference at 13h45.