TOP 70 MOST INFLUENTIAL MEPs

Source: VoteWatch Europe

Austria (3)

1. Othmar Karas (EPP)
2. Evelyn Regner (S&D)
3. Ulrike Lunacek (Greens/EFA)

Belgium (3)

1. Guy Verhofstadt (ALDE/ADLE)
2. Gérard Deprez (ALDE/ADLE)
3. Louis Michel (ALDE/ADLE)

Bulgaria (1)

1. Mariya Gabriel (EPP)

Estonia (1)

1. Kaja Kallas (ALDE/ADLE)

Finland (2)

1. Petri Sarvamaa (EPP)
2. Heidi Hautala (Greens/EFA)

France (5)

1. Sylvie Guillaume (S&D)
2. Marielle de Sarnez (ALDE/ADLE)
3. Pervenche Berès (S&D)
4. Alain Lamassoure (EPP)
5. Alain Cadec (EPP)

Germany (20)

1. Martin Schulz (S&D)
2. Manfred Weber (EPP)
3. Bernd Lange (S&D)
4. Ingeborg Grässle (EPP)
5. Herbert Reul (EPP)
6. Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA)
7. Evelyne Gebhardt (EPP)
8. Monika Hohlmeier (EPP)
9. Ska Keller (Greens/EFA)
10. Michael Cramer (Greens/EFA)
11. Andreas Schwab (EPP)
12. Constanze Krehl (S&D)
13. Werner Langen (EPP)
14. Elmar Brok (EPP)
15. Markus Ferber (EPP)
16. David McAllister (EPP)
17. Birgit Sippel (S&D)
18. Axel Voss (EPP)
19. Helmut Scholz (GUE-NGL)
20. Peter Simon (S&D)

Hungary (1)

1. Ildiko Gall-Pelcz (EPP)

Ireland (1)

1. Mairead McGuinness (EPP)

Italy (5)

1. Gianni Pittella (S&D)
2. Giovanni La Via (EPP)
3. Roberto Gualtieri (S&D)
4. Patrizia Toia (S&D)
5. Antonio Tajani (EPP)

Latvia (1)

1. Krisjanis Karins (EPP)

Netherlands (1)

1. Marietje Schaake (ALDE/ADLE)
2. Esther de Lange (EPP)
3. Denis de Jong (GUE-NGL)
4. Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA)

Poland (7)

1. Ryszard Czarneck (ECR)
2. Jerzy Buzek (EPP)
3. Jaroslaw Walesa (EPP)
4. Janusz Lewandowski (EPP)
5. Tadeusz Zwiecka (EPP)
6. Czeslaw Adam Siekierski (EPP)
7. Danuta Maria Hübner (EPP)

Portugal (2)

1. José Manuel Fernandes (EPP)
2. Paulo Ranjel (EPP)

Romania (3)

1. Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP)
2. Ioan Mircea Pascu (S&D)
3. Adina-Iona Valean (EPP)

Slovenia (1)

1. Tanja Fajon (S&D)

Spain (6)

1. Gabriel Mato (EPP)
2. Eider Gardiazabal Rubial (S&D)
3. Inés Ayala Sender (S&D)
4. Pablo Zalba Bidegain (EPP)
5. Esteban Gonzalez Pons (EPP)
6. Iratxe Garcia Perez (S&D)

Sweden (1)

1. Cecilia Wikström (ALDE/ADLE)

United Kingdom (3)

1. Timothy Kirkhope (ECR)
2. Vicky Ford (ECR)
3. Claude Moraes (S&D)

If we look at influence by EU Member States, the size of the country, or more concretely its population (translated into the number of MEPs) plays the key role. However, there are differences between the big Member States: Germany and Italy seem to exert the biggest level of influence in the European Parliament, more so than other big countries like France, the UK or Spain. This is explained mainly through the fact that Germany has the biggest national delegation in the biggest political group, EPP, while Italy in the S&D, which give them a competitive advantage at the allocation of key positions and even rapporteurship. The influence of France, the UK and Spain has been reduced (more than that of Italy and Germany) after the 2014 elections due to the substantial fragmentation of their groups’ delegations, ie. the loss of members by the delegations in the big centrist groups at the gain of those at the fringes. The next most influential countries come from Central and Eastern Europe, Poland and Romania, who have gained in influence after the last EP elections.

On the other hand, when we look at average individual performance (which filters out the size of the country), the picture is different. The MEPs from Nordic and Baltic countries (Estonia, Finland and Sweden), as well as from the Benelux region (Belgium and the Netherlands) are punching above their weight when it comes to rapporteurship, as they have the highest average of rapporteurship influence per MEP. That is to say, the MEPs from these countries get to shape more EU laws than the size of their country would normally allow them to do. At the other end, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Greece are less influential than their “normal” (size-based) potential.

However, when we look at the occupation of leadership positions, Germany is even more influential than its (already very big) size. For example, German MEPs head the EP as an institution, the largest political group, EPP, the Greens group and the far-left group GUE-NGL. Additionally, German MEPs chair five committees in the European Parliament, such as the Committee on International Trade (INTA) and Transport and Tourism (TRAN).

Other countries that end up being over-represented in positions of leadership in the European Parliament are the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Czechia. On the other hand, from among the big countries, France is underrepresented at the top of the EU Parliament, while the countries whose MEPs exert least influence from the leadership positions are Ireland, Greece, Lithuania, Slovakia, Croatia, Estonia and Denmark (along with the smaller Cyprus and Malta).