Which MEPs are the most supportive of migration, EU enlargement, EU social policy?

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A few months into the new EP term, we are already getting a clearer picture as to where different MEPs stand on the most important issues that the EU is dealing with. VoteWatch Europe is keeping track of how each MEP voted on all the issues decided in the European Parliament. We looked closely at all the votes cast so far on 3 of the hottest topics at the moment, namely migration, EU enlargement and employment/social affairs, in order to assess how different political players are positioning themselves. Continue Reading

Key take aways from Spain and Romania’s elections

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The 5th and 7th largest EU countries held key elections yesterday. Spaniards repeated once more parliamentary elections, while Romanians voted in the 1st round of presidential elections. While the topics of the electoral campaign were quite different, the overall trends in the redesign of the political party systems are similar.

The trends of fragmentation and polarization are expanding in Europe, as the political brands arising since the economic crisis are now fighting on equal footing the old, established parties. Continue Reading

New leaders of the EP: who are the winners and losers from the allocation of top posts?

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Conference of Presidents – © European Union 2019 – Source : EP

After long-winded post-electoral negotiations, the puzzle of the new EU leadership is almost complete. Despite the efforts to ensure geographical and political balance, there are some clear winners and losers from the distribution of key leadership positions, as is usually the case in politics. Continue Reading

The reports you need to monitor EU legislation

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The delayed start of the new European Commission might turn out to be a blessing for some stakeholders, as they get more time to get ready for the new legislative cycle. Have you done your homework? Over the past couple of months, we published several data-driven analyses with the purpose of helping you make the most of the upcoming political changes.

Here’s a short recap for you:

– Changes in dynamics of influence in EP Committees

Over the past few years, the size of different EP committees has changed dramatically. Continue Reading

Do you need tailored research or quality presentations/training for your groups? Hire the best!

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VoteWatch Europe is the leading organisation that tracks and forecasts EU political developments, through a unique combination of big political data and expert insights.

Our services are requested by influential public and private organisations, universities, politicians and the media. 

Our work is built on two pillars:

1) we follow the dynamics in the EU institutions (majority building, winners and losers, cohesion of the groups) to identify the supporters, opponents and the kingmakers among the EU Parliamentarians on any given policy proposal or broader area;

2) we follow the socio-political trends across the continent (opinion polls, governments’ change) in order to forecast the changes in the balance of power in both the European Parliament and the Council,  and hence the agenda and the margin of maneuver of the European Commission, on any given policy proposal. Continue Reading

Winners/losers in EU decision making: climate-trade link, enlargement, chromium, migrants, Thomas Cook, Algeria churches

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While preparing to decide the fate of von der Leyen’s Commission next month, last week the EU Parliamentarians engaged in the most hectic EP plenary since the EU elections, as the different EU political families formed and changed ad-hoc coalitions in order to provide political impetus to their proposals on the future policy direction of the EU.

Due to the ever shifting coalition arrangements, there was no overall winner or loser, since those who were on the winning side on some of the topics ended up being defeated on other matters. Continue Reading

Winners and losers in the EP decision-making: EU budget, herbicides, unemployment scheme and electoral interference

1 Comment Published in: EP Plenary, Insights, News, Politics & Institutions, Varia

Sylvie Goulard was not the only one to be defeated last week in the European Parliament. While the EPP and S&D were successful in their mission to break even with Macron’s group on the number of commissioners being rejected, the two traditional groups lost on other fronts.

The “good old grand coalition” EPP+S&D also joined forces to propose the set-up of a new special committee to investigate foreign electoral interference and disinformation in European elections. Continue Reading

Get key data for your academic community. Discover VoteWatch.eu!

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If you are a researcher, a professor or a student interested in EU decision-making, we’ve got just the right opportunities for you!

Given the big number of students and researchers who regularly use our unique paid-features to verify their working hypotheses for their books, academic papers, PhD, Master or BA thesis, VoteWatch launched an exclusive academic license that will facilitate the universities’ IP-based access to our voting database and innovative tools, which generate stats for party cohesion, matching between various parties or MEPs, loyalty of individuals to their party line, comparisons between the votes of governments on specific topics, and much more to be discovered in the infographic below. Continue Reading

Balance of power in EC top management shows geographical divides

1 Comment Published in: Insights, News, Politics & Institutions, Varia
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/23263673420/

Despite the rocky start of the Parliamentary vetting process, the new College of Commissioners led by Ursula von der Leyen is still expected to take office before the end of the year. While often sneered as ‘faceless Eurocrats’ by its staunchest critics, the College of Commissioners is mostly composed of career politicians whose task is to provide political impetus to the powerful executive machine of the EU, which is currently made up of about 30.000 civil servants.  Continue Reading

Rejection of two EC nominees: political takeaways on the new balance of power

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© European Union 2019 – Source : EP

The confirmation process of the new College of Commissioners got off to a rocky start, after the Committee on Legal Affairs refused to green-light two Commissioners-designate (Rovana Plumb from Romania – S&D – and László Trócsányi from Hungary – EPP) for alleged conflicts of interest.

This is highly relevant for stakeholders as it showcases how the political battles ahead will look like: 

1) Protection by traditional political families is now less effective

The content of the arguments used for the rejection is, of course, relevant, but since the subject is brought to the interpretation of fellow politicians (as opposed to independent judges), it is difficult to overlook the political considerations of parties. Continue Reading