The European Parliament has elected Italian socialist EU lawmaker David-Maria Sassoli as its new president in a second round of voting.

“We have got to be leading the necessary, indeed the vital, change to make Europe stronger and to modernize it,” Sassoli said ahead of the vote, citing climate change, migration and social justice as major challenges.

He completes a tableau of top appointments, after EU leaders nominated German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president, elected Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as European Council president and proposed Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell as EU foreign policy chief.

The leaders also named International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde as the next president of the European Central Bank.

The centre-right European People’s Party, which came first ahead of the socialists in May’s EU elections, backed Sassoli in return for securing the top commission nomination.