who elects the president of the european parliament
President of the European Parliament The president is elected by the members of Parliament for a two-and-a-half-year term, meaning two elections per parliamentary term, hence two presidents may serve during any one Parliamentary term. Since the European People's Party and Party of European Socialists began co-operating in the 1980s, they have had a tradition of splitting the two posts between them. In practice this means, in 2004–2009 for example, that the People's Party supported the Socialist candidate for president and, when his term expired in 2007, the Socialists supported the People's Party candidate for president. This results in large majorities for presidents, although there are some exceptions: for example from 1999–2004, under a People's Party–Liberal deal, the president for the second half of the term was a Liberal, rather than a Socialist.[6]