European ESC elects new president and vice president
The European Economic and Social committee has elected a new president, Mr Göke Frerichs, and two vice presidents, Mr John Simpson and Mr Gianni Vinay for a two year term until autumn 2002. Mr Frerichs, a German national, is a member of the Committee's employers' Group. His background is in commerce and he has been a board member of a number of wholesale firms in the Frankfurt-on-Main area. He has a degree in law and political science and postgraduate studies in economics. He is currently a member of the German wholesale and foreign trade confederation's management board at national level and chairs the organisation's regional branch in Hesse. He was also a CDU member of the German Parliament from 1965 to 1975 and has been a member of the European ESC since 1990 and served as chairman of its budget group. Upon his appointment, Mr Frerichs pledged he would 'endeavour to be a president for the whole of the ESC.' He underlined the need for closer relations with the Council of Ministers and the other EU institutions, and mentioned the enlargement of the Union as a particular challenge to the ESC. 'The Committee must be allowed to grow in membership in order to be properly able to relay the views of the grass roots to the EU's decision-makers.' The ESC's two new vice-presidents, Mr Simpson and Mr Vinay, were both appointed as Committee members in 1994. Mr Simpson, from the United Kingdom, is a member of the committee's Various Interests Group. He has been a senior lecturer in economics at Belfast's' Queen's University, and has served as chairman of the area's District health authority. He now works as an economics consultant. Mr Vinay is an Italian member of the ESC's Worker's Group. He currently serves in the international department of the Italian labour confederation (CGIL). He has been both deputy secretary general of the Italian federation of Construction worker's' unions and a member of the CGIL's steering committee. He was also a member of the bureau of the Italian Economic and Social council.