How do British MEPs fare in the European Parliament? Using detailed voting records from 2004 until 2015, Simon Hix illustrates the percentage of times MEPs from different member states, European political groups, and national parties are on the ‘winning side’ in votes in the European Parliament. The figures indicate that British MEPs do particularly poorly in comparison to those from other member states. This is partly a reflection of the fact that a large number of MEPs from the UK do not sit in the most powerful political groups, while even those parties that do sit in important groups, such as Labour, tend to vote against their own allies’ positions more frequently than other MEPs

Hix, Simon

LSE Research Online

blogs.lse.ac.ukhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2015/12/17/uk-influence-in-europe-series-british-meps-lose-most-often-in-the-european-parliament/UK influence in Europe series: British MEPs lose most often inthe European ParliamentHow do British MEPs fare in the European Parliament? Using detailed voting records from 2004 until2015, Simon Hix illustrates the percentage of times MEPs from different member states, Europeanpolitical groups, and national parties are on the ‘winning side’ in votes in the European Parliament.The figures indicate that British MEPs do particularly poorly in comparison to those from othermember states. This is partly a reflection of the fact that a large number of MEPs from the UK do notsit in the most powerful political groups, while even those parties that do sit in important groups, suchas Labour, tend to vote against their own allies’ positions more frequently than other MEPs.In recent blogs I have looked at policy outcomes, voting records and policy-makers’ connections to analyse whetherthe UK is ‘marginalised’ in the EU Council. But, the Council is only half of the EU’s bicameral legislature. The otherhalf is the European Parliament, which now has the power to amend and block EU laws in almost all policy areas. So,are UK Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) marginalised?A good starting point is MEP voting records (on www.VoteWatch.eu), and there are a lot of them: there were 6,149such votes in the 2004-09 session (EP6); 6,961 in 2009-14 (EP7); and there have been 2,306 since June 2014 in thecurrent session (EP8). From these records we can see whether UK MEPs and parties tend to be on the winning orlosing side in votes, and whether British MEPs and parties vote with or against the European political groups to whichthey belong.Figure 1: Percentage of times MEPs are on the ‘winning side’ in the European Parliament by Member StateNote: A member state’s delegation of MEPs was calculated as being on the ‘winning side’ in avote if the plurality of the MEPs from the member state voted the same way as the majority ofall MEPs in the vote.To start with, Figure 1 shows the percentage of times each member state’s MEPs were on the ‘winning side’ in allvotes in EP6, EP7 and EP8. The first thing to note is that the average is high: about 85 per cent. This is becausemany votes are highly consensual. Nevertheless, there is significant variation between the member states: from 93per cent for Finnish MEPs (and even higher for Bulgarian and Romanian MEPs, who joined in 2007), to only 71 percent for British MEPs. Also, while British MEPs were reasonably successful in EP6, since 2009 they have been lesslikely to be on the winning side than the MEPs from any other member state.But, voting in the European Parliament is mainly along political group lines not national lines, with higher group votingcohesion than the Democrats and the Republicans in the US Congress. Hence, what determines whether an MEP ison the winning or losing side is which political group she belongs to and whether she follows her group’s votingpositions.Figure 2 hence shows the ‘winning rates’ of the political groups, from left to right. Although the Liberals (ALDE) werethe third largest group in EP6 and EP7, and are the fourth largest in EP8, they have been on the winning side mostfrequently because they are pivotal: critical for a winning majority either on the left (with S&D, G/EFA, and GUE) or onthe right (with EPP and UEN or ECR). The two largest groups either side of the Liberals (S&D and EPP) also play adominant role (on the winning side almost 90 per cent of the time), while the groups further to the left and right aresignificantly less likely to win votes.Figure 2: Percentage of times MEPs are on the ‘winning side’ in the European Parliament by political groupNote: EP6 refers to the session of the European Parliament between 2004 and 2009, EP7 refersto the 2009-14 session, and EP8 refers to 2014-15. For more information on the politicalgroups see: European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE-NGL); The Greens–European FreeAlliance (Greens/EFA); Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D); Alliance ofLiberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE); European People’s Party (EPP); EuropeanConservatives and Reformists(ECR); Europe of Freedom and DirectDemocracy (EFDD); Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF). UK parties are indicated inparentheses (BNP and DUP MEPs have sat as ‘non-attached’ members).Only the Labour Party (in S&D) and the Liberal Democrats (in ALDE) sit in these dominant groups. TheConservatives left the EPP group in 2009, to form the ECR group. The ECR group was on the winning side only 56per cent of the time in EP7 and 58 per cent so far in EP8. Also, the Eurosceptic groups (ID, EFD and EFDD), whereUKIP sit, have voted against the majority in most votes since 2004, while G/EFA, where the Greens, SNP and PlaidCymru sit, have won in only 64 per cent of votes since 2004.In addition, Labour and Lib Dem MEPs have lost seats while the Conservatives and UKIP have won seats. As aresult, the number of UK MEPs in the three main groups (EPP, S&D and ALDE) has fallen from 31 out of 75 MEPs (41per cent) in 2004 to 21 out of 73 (29 per cent) in 2015. Not surprisingly, then, UK MEPs are more marginalised thanthey were before.Then, within their political groups, UK MEPs often vote against their groups’ positions. As Figure 3 shows, in 2009-14the Conservatives, who dominated the ECR group, voted with the group majority in almost every vote. In 2004-09,though, when the Conservatives were in the EPP group, they only voted with the EPP majority 74 per cent of the time.It is unclear whether being the dominant party in a marginalised group (ECR) is any better than being a marginalisedparty in a dominant group (EPP).Meanwhile, in 2009-14, Labour MEPs often voted against the S&D position, as did UKIP in the EFD group, and theSNP in the G/EFA group. Only the Lib Dems and Greens were more likely to follow group instructions than theaverage member of their groups.Figure 3: UK MEPs’ ‘loyalty’ to their European Parliament political groups (2009-14)Note: This figure only shows MEPs from parties that had at least 2 MEPs in the 2009-14session and were members of a political group. In addition to these MEPs, there was 1 MEPfrom Plaid Cymru (in G/EFA), 1 UUP (in ECR), 1 Sinn Fein (in GUE), and 2 BNP representativesand 1 DUP (who sat as non-attached members).Another way to see the challenge for British parties is to compare them to parties from the other large countries plussome of the UK’s allies in the Council (Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark), as shown in Figure 4 below. Thecombination of sitting in a marginalised group (ECR and EFDD) plus voting against the position of the majority of agroup (Labour in S&D) means that UK parties are considerably less likely to be on the winning side than othernational parties.The only exception is the Lib Dems, who were an influential party in the pivotal group before they lost all but one oftheir MEPs in 2014. Interestingly, though, some parties from the UK’s allies are also relatively marginalised. TheSwedish Conservatives are less likely to win votes than any other major party in the EPP group, while the Danish andSwedish Social Democrats are even less likely to win votes than Labour.Figure 4: Percentage of times MEPs are on the ‘winning side’ in the European Parliament by national partyNote: A national party was calculated as being on the ‘winning side’ in a vote if the plurality ofthe MEPs from the party voted the same way as the majority of all MEPs in the vote. Theparties are coloured according to their political group membership. UK parties are indicatedwith stripes.Overall, European Parliament voting records suggest that the UK is in a weak position in this branch of the EU’slegislative system. Most British MEPs do not sit in the groups that dominate the European Parliament agenda. Andeven when they do sit in these groups – such as the Conservatives in the EPP group before 2009, and Labour in theS&D group – British MEPs are often opposed to the majority positions of these groups. As a result, British MEPsoften find themselves on the losing side in key votes.Nevertheless, these roll-call voting patterns do not tell the full story. How much do these patterns vary by policy area?And do UK MEPs capture some of the key agenda-setting positions in the European Parliament, such as committeechairs or rapporteurships? I will address these questions in the next two blogs.Please read our comments policy before commenting .Note: A version of this article also appears at The Guardian. The article gives the views of the author, not the positionof EUROPP – European Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics. Featured image credit: ©European Union 2015 – European Parliament (CC-BY-ND-NC-4.0)Shortened URL for this post: http://bit.ly/1Iahhjy _________________________________About the authorSimon Hix – LSESimon Hix is Harold Laski Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics andPolitical Science, and Senior Fellow on the ESRC’s UK in a Changing Europe programme.

UK influence in Europe series: British MEPs lose most often in the European Parliament

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online