The European Parliament's 736 MEPs elected German Socialist Martin Schulz as president with 387 votes in a secret ballot, the parliament's website said Tuesday, January 17.

Previously designated to take the role, Schulz will lead the EP until the next European elections in June 2014. The parliament's president changed halfway through its term.

German socialist Schulz, born in 1955, is leader of the Socialists and Democrats, or S&D, bloc in the European Parliament. He succeeds conservative former Polish prime minister Jerzy Buzek.