Sassoli passed away

Sassoli passed away

"President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, passed away this morning at 1:15 a.m. in the hospital in Aviano, Italy," his spokesman, Roberto Cuillo, announced on Twitter.

David Sassoli was admitted to a hospital in Italy on December 26 due to the serious immune system disorder.

He was previously treated for severe pneumonia, and all his activities as the president of the EP were suspended for two months until November 2021, when he took over the political duty at the head of one of the three most important EU institutions.

After his journalistic career in 2009, David Sassoli was elected a member of the European Parliament in front of the Italian Social Democrats. He comes to the position of the President of the EP after the last European elections in July 2019. From the position of EP President, Sassoli advocated the accession of Serbia and other Western Balkan countries to the EU.

"Enlargement can bring enormous benefits to the region and to Europe as a whole, as it contributes to a stable, rich and peaceful continent," Sassoli said in June last year.

Voting for the election of the new president of the EP is already planned for the end of January, considering that Sassoli announced earlier that he will not run for a second term of two and a half years at the head of this convocation of the European Parliament.

"Rest in peace, dear David"

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed her condolences on the death of Sassoli. "Rest in peace, dear David," she wrote in Italian on her Twitter account.

Ursula von der Leyen said that she was deeply saddened by the heavy loss of "a great European and a proud Italian". "David Sassoli was a compassionate journalist, an extraordinary President of the European Parliament and, in the first place, a dear friend," said von der Leyen.

The highest EU officials and members of the European Parliament, including the Vice President of the Commission, Frans Timmermans, and the Head of the EP Delegation to Serbia, Tanja Fajon, have bid farewell to Sassoli via Twitter messages.