New EU Parliament's Secretary General, Klaus Welle to EuroFora : "Not so Young ?"..

EU Parliament renews its Head of staff ahead of crucial 2009 Elections.


    By renewing the Head of its huge Administration on March 2009, can EU Parliament hope to tackle with success the difficult but crucial for the Future June 2009 EU Elections ?

- "I'm not so young !", joked with a large smile the new EU Parliament's Secretary General, Klaus Welle, to "EuroFora". But the big athletic young man with a moustache, great eyes and strong voice, confirmed that he had been involved in European Youth Movements since long, and several people around the EU knew him since then..

However, during recent years (2007-2009), he became largely known in a key post as Head of Cabinet for EU Parliament''s current President, Hans Gert Poettering, after a long political experience as Secretary General of the largest Group of MEPs, the European People's Party, from 1994 to 2004, before taking over a larger responsibility as EU Parliament's Director General for all internal policies (2004-2007).

With a University background in Economy and an early experience in Banking, Welle originally evolved as Head for Foreign and EU policy in German Chancellor Merkel's CDU party's former Heaquarters, back in 1991-1994, at nearby Bonn.

He succeeds to retiring former SG Harold Rohmer, from Denmark, a solid and experienced EU Parliament's official for some 36 years, who saluted the staff during the March A session in Strasbourg, and was obviously moved by emotion when President Poettering paid hommage to his loyal services also at a public session.

But Rohmer, a long-time Deputy SG, served only a few years as SG himself, after succeeding to former EP's SG, Brittish Julian Priestley.

On the contrary, Welle, given his comparatively young age, should normally serve for a much longer period of time as EU Parliament's Secretary General, starting by the hard but stimulating challenge of crucial 2009 EU Elections.

Well, this should give him enough time to explain to all those who are not so fluent in German, as he is also in English and French, whether his name : Welle, stems from "Welt" (World), or "Willen" (Will), or both...