Italian Member of the European Parliament Fulvio Martusciello has been elected President of Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Israel.
The election of Martusciello, who is a member of the European People’s Party (Christian-Democrat) political group, the largest in the European Parliament, took place Thursday during the constituent meeting of the Delegation for relations with Israel, on the proposal of his Spanish EPP colleague and Vice-President of the European Parliament, Valcarcel Siso.
‘’I'm ready to get to work immediately. In two weeks I will be already in Israel for a first institutional meeting,’’ Martusciello, a member of the Forza Italia party from Naples, declared at the end of the meeting.
He added: "I will concentrate my efforts to contribute to the peace process in the region".
Mr Martusciello succeeds Dutch MEP Bastiaan Belder from the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) who was elected Vice-Chairman of the delegation along with Czech Olga Sehnalova of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D).
In December, an interparliamentary meeting between the European Parliament delegation and its equivalent in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, will take place in Brussels in the presence of Martusciello’s counterpart, Avishay Braverman, a Labour Member of the Knesset.
The delegation of the European Parliament for relations with Israel is composed of 18 members from various political groups and of the same number of substitutes.
Set up following the direct elections of European Parliament in 1979, it is one of the Parliament’s oldest delegations.
The delegation is responsible for ‘’maintaining and developing the European Parliament's international contacts’’, while focusing on ‘’the parliamentary dimension’’, which in this case refers to relations with the Knesset
It holds regular working meetings and hearings to prepare for meetings in Jerusalem or in Strasbourg or Brussels with its Israeli equivalent.