Roberta Metsola, a Christian Democrat politician from Malta, was elected president of the European Union Parliament on Tuesday for a two-and-a-half year term following the death of Socialist David Sassoli last week.
Ms Metsola is only the third woman to be elected to the post.
Her birthday was Tuesday, and at 43 she is the youngest president of the European Parliament.
Metsola was the candidate of the Parliament's largest group, and she received 458 of the 616 votes cast on Tuesday.
The European Parliament represents the EU's 450 million citizens and describes itself as "the heart of European democracy".
