VoteWatch.eu is an independent organisation set up to promote better debates and greater transparency in EU decision-making by providing  easy access to, and analysis of, the political decisions and activities of the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers. VoteWatch.eu uses the European Parliament's own attendance, voting and activity data - available through the Parliament's website - to give a full overview of MEP activities, broken down by nationality, national political party and European party grouping.

Using sophisticated statistical methods developed by political scientists from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Université Libre de Bruxelles, the website covers the Parliament's activities during the entire 2004-2009 term and, starting with the 2009-2014 term, it is updated following each voting session in plenary. Please sign up for our news feed if you are interested in receiving immediate updates.

VoteWatch.eu will soon be expanded to also include information on governments' decision records in the Council of Ministers. This is planned for early 2012.

VoteWatch.eu is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organisation. Its goal is to increase transparency in EU decision-making by making information on decision-making by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers available in a user-friendly format that can be easily accessed and digested by citizens, the media, NGOs, the private sector and anyone else interested in EU affairs.

VoteWatch.eu believes that by making it easier for voters to follow the activities of the EU's legislative bodies, they will gain a better understanding of, and greater interest in, how EU politics affects their daily lives.

VoteWatch.eu is run by a small team that combines skills and expertise in EU affairs with extensive experience in the development and use of transparency online tools by civil society to monitor the work of governmental institutions.

Chair: Simon Hix (co-founder). Simon is Professor of European and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science.  Simon is an expert on EU politics, comparative democratic institutions, parliamentary voting behaviour, and parties and elections.  Among other things, Simon is Director of the Political Science and Political Economy research group at the LSE. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (s.hix at lse.ac.uk).

Vice Chair: Sara Hagemann (co-founder). Sara is Lecturer in EU Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science and has previously worked in think-tanks in Brussels and governmental institutions in Denmark. Sara frequently participates in policy debates and has published extensively on EU governance and democracy. From 2009 to 2011 Sara was Executive Director of VoteWatch.eu (s.hagemann at lse.ac.uk).

Abdul G. Noury (co-founder). Abdul is Associate Professor of Political Economy at New York University (NYU-AD). Abdul is an expert on European Political Economy, Legislatures, and Applied Statistics, which he also teaches at NYU. Abdul has published extensively on legislatures and economic aspects European integration.

Sir Julian Priestley. Julian is Chairman of the Board of Directors of EPPA (European Public Policy Advisers), a Brussels based public affairs consultancy. From 1997 to 2007 he was Secretary-General of the European Parliament. He is the author of "Six Battles That Shaped Europe's Parliament" (2008) and co-author of "Europe's Parliament - People, Places, Politics" (2012).

Ignasi Guardans. Ignasi is CEO and co-founder of CUMEDIAE - Culture & Media Agency Europe AISBL. He is a former Member of the European Parliament from Spain (ALDE Group), and a former Member of the Spanish Parliament. He is a regular contributor to Spanish media, and a respected voice in Spanish speaking social media.

Policy Director: Doru Frantescu (co-founder). Doru leads the development of the VoteWatch.eu website, the voting analysis and related  services. He has worked extensively in civil society in Bucharest and Brussels, being the author of several anlytical reports on voting and activity of Members of the European Parliament. He also has experience in the media sector and is an expert in e-democracy tools.  (doru at VoteWatch.eu).

Managing Director: Michiel van Hulten. Michiel is a EU affairs consultant based in Brussels. He is course leader of the FutureLab Europe programme at the European Policy Centre and a guest lecturer on the EuropeanParliament at the Institut des Hautes Etudes des Communications Sociales (IHECS) in Brussels. From 1999 to 2004 he was aMember of the European Parliament for the Netherlands. He co-founded the Campaign for Parliament Reform and is the author, with Nick Clegg, of "Reforming the European Parliament", Foreign Policy Centre, 2003 (michiel at votewatch.eu).

Researcher: Lukas Obholzer. Lukas is a PhD student in the European Institute at the London School of Economics in Political Science (lukas at votewatch.eu).

Assistant to the Managing Director: Joan Manuel Lanfranco Pari. Joan assists Michiel and the rest of the team, with a focus on events and fundraising. He has work experience in the European Parliament, at a pan-European NGO and with a large EU affairs consultancy (joan@votewatch.eu).

VoteWatch is supported by the Open Society Institute, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Centre for European Policy Studies, Burson-Marsteller, White&Case and ElectionMall.com.