MEP Influence Index 2024: Top MEPs shaping Health

This analysis measures the influence that Members of the European Parliament are exerting over EU legislation and documents that shape EU health 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 most influential MEPs on health have been: Tomislav Sokol (EPP SANT Coordinator and rapporteur on the European Health Data Space), Sara Cerdas (S&D SANT Coordinator and top legislator with regards to various legislation), Alessandra Moretti (active legislator on reports regarding the pharmaceutical strategy), Adam Jarubas (contributor to the European Health Data Space) and Joanna Kopcińska (rapporteur on the report on establishing the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control). See the full top 10 below.
MEPs from the S&D, as well as the EPP, tend to be punching above their weight when it comes to influencing this policy area. 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 a wide range of political and societal stakeholders that engage with them.

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 of influence of all MEPs on health issues, but also the direction in which each of them is working to influence the debate on regulation of medical products, e.g. whether they promote a stronger focus on the regulatory approach or stronger focus on market approach. Particular attention should be paid to the MEPs who are in the middle, i.e. which have both a fair level of influence and their views are moderate, because in the current (and future) fragmented political landscape, these MEPs (the swing voters) are the ones that make the difference, i.e. their votes are the ones that decide whether a key paragraph is approved or not.

Note: the positions of the MEPs in the chart below on the horizontal axis is based on an assessment of their voting behavior on a wide range of paragraphs and amendments on this particular sector.

Note: in the chart above, only the names of top MEPs are visible. If interested in more, contact us at [email protected].

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 1 of these top 10 MEPs is likely to come back after the elections. Would you like to know which one? 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 this chart. 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

Differently from other policy areas, legislators from Renew lag behind their colleagues from the S&D and the EPP on health policy. Strikingly, there is no single Renew member in the top 10 most influential MEPs on health. The centrist group sadly recently lost its top legislator on this field, Veronique Trillet Lenoir.

Trends by country

MEPs from “new Europe” tend to be well represented among the top influencers on health, especially Croatians, Slovenians, Polish and Romanians. However the level of influence by different countries is rather balanced geographically, with national delegations from different regions taking the lead on this policy.

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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