The EPP Group Bureau will meet on Thursday and Friday with key figures of the new Spanish Government, headed by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, in Palma de Mallorca, where they will also debate the role of SMEs as a motor for growth in Europe, the fight against corruption, the proposals on the future Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) and the financing of the Trans-European Networks.

In the first session of the meeting in Palma de Mallorca, the Members of the EPP Group Bureau will listen to the Spanish Minister for the Economy, Luis de Guindos, responsible for the main reforms introduced by the new Spanish Government during its first two months of mandate, and will also discuss with European Commissioner, Michel Barnier, how to help SMEs in the internal market as they are the way to recover economic growth in Europe.

Also on Thursday, the Bureau will hold a special ceremony to award the Schuman medal - a major honorific distinction of the EPP Group - to former MEP, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, who is now the new Spanish Secretary of State for European Affairs. The EPP Group Chairman, Joseph Daul, will thank Méndez de Vigo for his contribution to the Group and to European integration over the last 25 years.

The first day in Palma de Mallorca will end with an encounter with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the regional and local authorities and the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, and also former MEP José Manuel García Margallo y Marfil.

On Friday, the EPP Group Bureau will debate the fight against corruption, with the participation of the President of the Baleares Region, José Manuel Bauza, on the CAP reform with the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Dacian Cioloş, and the Spanish Secretary-General for Agriculture, Isabel Garcia Tejerina, and on the financing of the Trans-European Transport Networks.

For further information:

Pedro López de Pablo, EPP Group Press and Communications Service, Tel: +32-475-493352

Notes to Editors:

The EPP Group is by far the largest political group in the European Parliament with 271 Members.