MEP Influence Index 2024: Top MEPs shaping Employment & social policy

This analysis measures the influence that Members of the European Parliament are exerting over EU legislation and documents that shape Employment & social policy. It is part of a series of reports that includes:

This research measures MEPs’ influence through a combination of criteria clustered in the following categories: formal and informal leadership positions, actual legislative work, political network, committee membership and voting behavior.

Disclaimer: this is an assessment based on our team's 15+ years of experience in interpreting relevant EU socio-political data. The aim of this research is not to provide an "absolute truth", but rather to provide an indicative overview. As in any such research, the weighing of the criteria may contain an intrinsic degree of subjectivity, which we aimed to reduce by consulting with a wide range of analysts and practitioners. To read the full methodology, click here.

Key findings:

The top 5 most influential MEPs shaping Employment & social policy are: Dennis Radtke (EPP EMPL Coordinator and active legislator on social issues including on adequate minimum wages in the European Union), Frances Fitzgerald (EPP FEMM Coordinator and key legislator regarding women’s rights issues), Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová (Renew EMPL Coordinator and active legislator especially regarding the rights of disabled people), Agnes Jongerius (S&D EMPL Coordinator and key legislator regarding minimum wages and just transition) and Dragoş Pîslaru (EMPL Chair and active legislator on children’s rights). See the full top 10 below.
MEPs from the socially-oriented groups such as S&D are among the the most influential ones on this policy area, while Nordics and Slovenians are some of the national groups standing out on social policy. See the full stats below.

More details on the above findings can be found below.

Important: when tracking influence over EU policies, always bear in mind that while individual MEPs are the visible signatories of initiatives or amendments, they are not operating in an information vacuum. Rather, their views and actions are shaped by bigger political and societal forces / pressures that surround them and that they are networking with.

To understand the full picture, you need to look at the strength of these forces and the direction in which they are pushing and pulling. For example, the chart below shows the level in which each party is working to influence this policy area, e.g. whether they promote a stronger focus on the social approach or a market approach.

The visual below shows our assessment of the most influential 10 MEPs in this sector (scroll to the right to see the full list).

The list is also available as a table format here.

NB: at least 3 of these top 10 MEPs are likely to come back after the elections. Would you like to know which ones? Contact us at [email protected] for more information on our EP2024 elections info-pack (which includes likely MEPs, Commissioners, policy impact, and much more).

In addition to the top 10 most influential MEPs, we have found it interesting to identify the MEPs from each group that has had the most "personalised" views (i.e. different from those of their political group), on either side of the debate. In other words, who is the most to the right and to the left of their political group on social topics (such as on minimum wages). This is based on the analysis of their voting behavior on a wide range of relevant paragraphs and amendments impacting on this sector. These findings are represented below.

Trends by political group

Perhaps unsurprisingly, MEPs from groups that tend to focus on social issues, such as S&D, tend to punch above their weight on this policy area. In this case, even MEPs from the Left display a relatively high level of influence (proportionally to their size).

Trends by country

Our data shows that MEPs from the Northern countries like Sweden, Denmark and Ireland tend to punch above their relatively small weight on these policy areas. Nordics especially are critical of EU social initiatives on subsidiarity grounds. Importantly, alongside small Luxembourg, Slovenians are outperforming their colleagues from other countries. Notably, two Slovenians are full member of EMPL (Tomc and Brglez), while Joveva is a substitute.

If you are an institutional or socio-economic stakeholder and you are interested in a workshop about EU elections and/or the functioning of the EU institutions, contact us at [email protected].

Scroll back up to check our research in other sectors.

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