MEP Simon Busuttil has been elected as EPP coordinator in the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee. The election took place last Wednesday during the European Parliament’s inaugural plenary session in Strasbourg.

The LIBE Committee is responsible for the areas of civil liberties, justice and home affairs, including the EU immigration and asylum policy. It is also responsible to oversee the establishment of the EU’s Area of Freedom, Justice and Security which is one of the EU’s priorities in the coming years.

Dr Busuttil was elected following a vote taken among EPP MEPs who have been chosen to serve in the LIBE committee. The post was contested by another MEP and 28 votes were cast. Dr Busuttil garnered a total of 27 votes.

As EPP coordinator he will lead the group’s political work in the committee, speak on behalf of the group, assign work among members and act as group “whip” to ensure that the group’s political positions are duly reflected in voting lists and followed during votes.

The EPP group in the committee includes top personalities such as Clemente Mastella, former Italian Minister of Interior; Monica Macovei, former Minister of Justice of Romania and well-known corruption-buster; Ernst Strasser, former Austrian Minister of the Interior, and the wife of Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, Anna Maria Corazza Bildt.

The LIBE Committee will be meeting for the first time tomorrow in Brussels where it will have an exchange of views with Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot on the upcoming Stockholm Programme on Freedom, Justice and Security.