rural communities on the RPR list under Nicolas Sarkozy. Daul also became deputy mayor in his home town, vice-president of the Community of Councils and chairman of the Strasbourg Abattoir Management Cooperative (160 employees). Member of the European Parliament After having been elected in 1999, Daul joined the then EPP-ED Group, now EPP Group. Daul became a member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, appointed chairman in January 2002. In 2002, Daul was appointed chairman of the Conference of Committee Chairmen, which is responsible for co-ordinating 'horizontal' issues affecting the 20 parliamentary committees and for preparing the draft agenda for the plenary part-sessions. As part of the reform of the European Parliament, the Conference put forward proposals for making its work more efficient. Daul also co-chaired, together with the committee chairmen concerned, the hearings of the Commissioners and transmitted the conclusions to the President of the European Parliament. Finally, in 2005 and 2006, he and Socialist MEP Richard Corbett were Parliament's representatives for a new round of negotiations with the Council and Commission on comitology, giving Parliament, for the first time, the right to block the adoption of Commission implementing measures. The 'Lisbon Strategy' Group headed by Daul explored questions of employment and in this capacity Daul co-chaired two meetings in 2005 and 2006 between the European Parliament and the national parliaments. As a member of the European Parliament Delegation for the WTO negotiations, Daul formed part of the European Parliament delegation to the ministerial conferences in Seattle (1999), Doha (2001) and Cancun (2003). He was involved in the preparatory work for the ministerial conferences by regularly meeting ambassadors in Geneva to represent the position of the European Parliament. In January 2007, he was elected chairman of the EPP Group. He remains member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and substitute member of the Committee on International Trade and of the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. He is also chairman of the European Parliamentary Association (EPA). On 12 November 2013, Daul was elected president of the European People's Party, succeeding the late Wilfried Martens, while also remaining chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. However, he decided not to run again in the European elections in 2014 and to leave his position as Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament to dedicate all his time to his new function. He