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Centre-right and centrist groups most influential when shaping EU’s foreign policy, suggests new influence index 

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The centre-right and centrist groups in the European Parliament wield significantly more political influence than their left-leaning counterparts when shaping the EU’s foreign policy, suggests the Foreign Affairs Influence Index released today by BCW Brussels and VoteWatch Europe. 

According to the Index, MEPs representing the European People’s Party (EPP) and Renew Europe (RE) have most power to change legislation, win votes and shape debates on the EU’s foreign policy in the European Parliament. An analysis of the MEP ranking based on political influence can be found on the VoteWatch website.

The Index also analyzes social media data to measure MEPs’ social influence, namely their ability to reach people on social platforms, shape the public conversation and build a community of support for their ideas. MEPs belonging to smaller, left-leaning groups excel on this measure, perhaps compensating for their compromised political clout by being more active on social mediaThe European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) dominate the social influence ranking, followed by the Greens/EFA. However, the centre-left group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) ranks low for average social influence, trailing MEPs from all six of the other political groupings.

With the von der Leyen Commission positioning itself as ‘geopolitical’, Europe is looking to increase its weight and relevance in foreign affairs vis-a-vis Member States in the coming years. One of the ways to achieve this result would be by adopting the qualified majority voting system instead of unanimity within the Council on foreign affairs and security and defence issues. Nevertheless, this initiative is not broadly supported by national governments, hence why we should not expect to see concrete change in the next few years.

MEPs from the EPP and Renew Europe retain a stronger political influence on foreign affairs,” said BCW Brussels Account Manager Pietro Bertaggia. “We also see that this is a policy area which is still shaped by national governments and being affiliated to bigger political groups, whose member parties are often in power at national level, is likely to amplify the political influence held in the European Parliament as well. Experience also counts, since many top-ranking MEPs from these two political groups have previously served as Ministers in their national governments or have been MEPs for more than one parliamentary term.”

“Trends by national group also offer interesting indications about the majoritarian views within the European Parliament,” said Doru Frantescu, CEO of VoteWatch Europe. “On average, Baltic and Polish MEPs punch above their weight with regards to political influence on EU external relations. This is rather important, since these national groups share similar geopolitical leanings, therefore boosting each other’s influence.”

When looking at the influence of MEPs by member state, the overall ranking is dominated by MEPs from Germany, Belgium and Poland. The Index also shows that foreign policy might still be a man’s game, with female MEPs taking only three of the top ten spots for overall influence, three for social influence and only two for political influence.

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The top 10 MEPs for overall influence on foreign affairs are: 

  1. Radosław SIKORSKI (EPP, Poland)
  2. Reinhard BÜTIKOFER (Greens, Germany)
  3. Hilde VAUTMANS (Renew Europe, Belgium)
  1. Nathalie LOISEAU (Renew Europe, France)
  2. David McALLISTER (EPP, Germany)

The top 5 MEPs for social influence on foreign affairs are: 

  1. Robert BIEDROŃ (S&D, Poland)
  2. Hermann TERTSCH (ECR, Spain)
  3. Fabienne KELLER (Renew Europe, France)
  4. Jordan BARDELLA (ID, France)
  5. Erik MARQUARDT (Greens, Germany)

The top 5 MEPs for political influence on foreign affairs are: 

  1. Michael GAHLER (EPP, Germany)
  2. Tonino PICULA (S&D, Croatia)
  3. Bernd LANGE (S&D, Germany)
  4. David McALLISTER (EPP, Germany)
  5. Petras AUŠTREVIČIUS (Renew Europe, Lithuania)

Insights

Top influencers

  • Former Polish Defence and Foreign Affairs Minister Radosław Sikorski comes out as the most influential MEP, reflecting his membership to both the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) and Security and Defence Subcommittee (SEDE), as well as his Chairmanship of the Delegation for relations with the United States.
  • Experience counts, with all five top ranking MEPs having previously served as Ministers in their national governments or having been MEPs for more than one parliamentary term. 
  • As foreign policy cuts across multiple committees and subcommittees (AFET, INTA, SEDE, delegations), committee leadership is important but does not necessarily play a decisive role.
  • The Chairs of the AFET and INTA Committees, David McAllister (EPP, Germany) and Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany) are both ranked in the top 5 for political influence.
  • As well as the Parliamentary Committees, top influencers play key roles in delegations such as those for relations with the United States, China and Russia.

Member States

  • Poland is a clear front-runner, leading on both political and social influence. 
  • The three Baltic member states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are ranked in the top five for average political influence. 

BCW and VoteWatch will release the full report and the overall ranking of MEPs across all policy areas in September. 

About the Influence Index

The Influence Index is a new data-driven ranking of MEPs by BCW Brussels and VoteWatch Europe. It is the first MEP ranking to measure influence through the two dimensions of:

  • Political influence: the ability to change legislation, win votes and shape debates  
  • Social influence: the ability to reach people, shift the public conversation and build a community of support

More information, including a detailed description of the methodology, is available on the website. 

About BCW 

BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe), one of the world’s largest full-service global communications agencies, is in the business of moving people on behalf of clients. 

BCW Brussels specialises in European public affairs and has over 60 consultants with extensive experience in EU affairs. BCW is a part of WPP, a creative transformation company. 

About VoteWatch 

VoteWatch Europe is a leading Brussels-based independent organisation specialised in combining large data sets of EU political data with cutting-edge expertise in order to provide the best insights into EU politics.

Independent studies ranked VoteWatch Europe as the top influencer in the category of think tanks communicating on EU affairs.

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