MEP Influence Index 2024: Top MEPs shaping Migration & home affairs

This analysis measures the influence that Members of the European Parliament are exerting over EU legislation and documents that shape migration & home affairs. 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 Migration & home affairs policy are: Juan Fernando López Aguilar (LIBE Chair and a prolific legislator across the board), Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA LIBE Coordinator and key a legislator on returning illegally staying third-country nationals), Jeroen Lenaers (EPP LIBE Coordinator and active legislator on accessing other EU information systems for ETIAS purposes), Fabienne Keller ( Member of the LIBE Committee and active legislator on asylum and migration management) and Ramona Strugariu (Member of the LIBE Committee and active legislator on coast and border protection). See the full top 10 below.
Renew and S&D MEPs tend to punch above their weight on this policy aread, while the Dutch stand out from among the national groups 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 direction in which each national party is working to influence this policy area, e.g. whether they are supporters of an open migration approach or prefer a more restrictive 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 2 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 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

Migration and home affairs tends to be a polarising topic, which explains why the forces in the middle, such as the MEPs belonging to the Renew group tend to exert a higher proportional influence, as they can swing the outcome of key decisions. MEPs from Renew and S&D account for most of the positions in our top 10 list of influencers.

Trends by country

Dutch MEPs clearly stand out when it comes to debates on migration, a hot issue in their country. 3 Dutch MEPs from different political families are featured in our top 10 list. Other delegations that punch above their weight on this topic are the Swedish, Bulgarians, Spanish and Portuguese.

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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