Some MEPs think the path to European influence is via Youtube/TikTok.
They have moved to Brussels and some want to make their mark here.
When asked I give the following story.
I was fortunate to work for two British Labour MEPs, Dr Gordon Adam and Anita Pollack.
I picked up a good idea of what made them influential, if by influence you define it as getting the budget, laws and policies they wanted. They:
- Worked across Political lines.
- Sat down and discussed workable compromises with MEPs.
- .They served their time demonstrating deep competence in a few areas. Your own political group is not going to give a legislative file to a MEP who can’t take it through the Legislative journey without messing things up. They’ll test MEPs out on non-legislative files.
- Mastered the Parliament’s rules of procedure.
- Did not give speeches in public or private that came across as demented or unhinged.
- Did not think the path to successfully changing EU laws, policies and budget allocation was via social media.
- Had good relations with serious think tanks
- Listened politely to most stakeholders – even those they may not instinctively agree with. and, when good points were made, would take them on board.
- Worked well with the Commission at the services and political level.
- Worked well with the Council presidency when steering files through
- Realise that just because someone did not agree with you on one point, did not mean that you could work well with the on other issues.
- Hired experienced political advisers back home.
I sense these are common qualities that successful MEPs have , if you define success as a track record of delivering the laws, policies, and budgets the politician wanted.
The alternative is to be part of the Roger Helmer MEP school. Listened to by believers with little influence outside.
I suspect there is an inverse relationship between YouTube/TikTok posts and legislative, policy and budget success.