MEP voting records put under the spotlight

The complete voting records of MEPs are being made available online for the first time with the launch of a new website.

Speaking at the launch in Brussels on Monday, academic Simon Hix said the site is aimed at promoting "better debates and greater transparency in EU decision-making."

The site – www.votewatch.eu – used the parliament's own attendance, voting and activity data to give a full overview of MEP activities, broken down by nationality, national political party and European party grouping.

It coves the period 2004-09 and will be updated following each voting plenary session in the new parliament.

Hix, of the London School of Economics, said, "This is not meant to be subjective in any way. It is purely factual and merely reports on how MEPs have voted in the past five years.

"However, it is important because it enables us to track the voting record of MEPs not only in the recent past but in the future."

It shows, for instance, that UK Tories voted differently from the EPP-ED group 25 per cent of the time in the current parliament.

The site also demonstrates, he said, that German MEPs are more likely to vote along national party lines, having voted in such a way 61 per cent of the time since 2004.

As expected, Greens MEPs are most likely to vote in a cohesive block on environmental issues with British deputies the least likely to vote on national party lines on general policy issues.

Sara Hagemann, of the European Policy Centre in Brussels, said,"The idea was not to name and shame MEPs.

"Europe needs a stronger democracy. We want to make the way it works more transparent so that voters can better understand how their MEPs are casting their vote on important issues."

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