What if there were a way to identify, in advance, which MEPs support you needed to get your issue adopted.
I think there is. There are two ways I know.
VoteWatch has a useful tool to identify the key influential MEPs on your issue (see link).
80/20 Principle
Another way it to use the 80/20 principle.
The Environment Committee has 81 members.
Out of those 81, a far smaller number’s support is key.
Looking at the Committee’s oversight of secondary legislation, you see a group of around 30% who join in challenges.
A closer look of whose active support ensures success is needed for a challenge to succeed is around 12%.
The MEPs whose challenges succeed work together. They form cross Party alliances.
The MEPs whose support you need is going to change depending on the issue. MEPs specialise on issues and their colleagues tend to defer to their expertise. This only means you need to know which MEP is the issue lead on your issue.
Practical Impacts
This has practical impacts. If you can’t this core block supporting you, your chances of getting the Committee to back your challenge are neglible.
Indeed, the support of some MEPs and groups are likely to guarantee that your challenge fails.
Looking at the reasons for the challenges across the main areas of scrutiny: pesticides, GMOs, food and chemicals shows a narrow set of issues and grounds being raised.
This makes your job easier. If you raise the issues that the Committee has backed in the past, the chances of them backing them again are higher. And, if the Committee backs the challenge, the full Parliament is more likely than not to back the challenge.