The last European elections saw the European People’s Party (EPP) increase its share of members of the European Parliament. However, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) has been on the winning side of votes most frequently (over 95% of the time). These are the main findings of a VoteWatch.euannual report, released on 30 June, on voting behaviour in the Parliament in the first year after the new elections (July 2009 to June 2010). The report was analysed and discussed by a panel of five MEPs from different political groups, on 30 June in Brussels.

Simon Hix, chairman of VoteWatch.eu, dubbed ALDE the “kingmaker”, explaining that the Liberals are now able to choose to form a winning centre-right majority with the EPP or a winning centre-left majority with the S&D and Greens-EFA groups. In terms of policy areas, centre-left coalitions tend to take the lead on environmental and civil liberties issues, whereas economic and free-market topics are usually pushed by centre-right coalitions (see box).

Nevertheless, a ‘grand coalition’ between the two biggest groups (EPP and S&D) remains at the centre of most EP decisions. Conservatives and Socialists voted 70% of the time the same way, just as in the previous legislature, and the Liberals often followed suit. Moreover, in the same way as during the previous Parliament, the Conservatives are still on the “winning side” of the vote over 90% of the time.

Othmar Karas, vice-chair of the EPP group, was keen to dismiss claims that the Conservatives are in a less dominant position in this new legislature. He underlined the importance of a qualitative analysis of votes and said that the vote on the Barroso II Commission, despite representing only one vote in the analysis, was the most important vote.

One topic of agreement among panel members was the key importance of the SWIFT vote in February. Eva Lichtenberger, vice-president of the Greens-EFA group, insisted on the institutional aspect of this vote, which was a way of sending a clear message about the EP’s intention to use its new powers.

Another interesting phenomenon is that MEPs from the four largest political groups (EPP, S&D, ALDE and Greens-EFA) vote primarily in line with their political allegiance rather than their national allegiance. In reference to this, Jo Leinen (S&D, Germany) stressed the “Europeanisation” of votes. Along the same lines, Hix claimed the EP has now become a “normal parliament”.

The topic that raised the most controversy was report writing. Indeed, the two largest groups produce the largest number of reports, a fact that smaller groups were keen to flag as a problem. Lichtenberger was critical of the way rapporteur roles are distributed. She argued that outspoken experts on specific topics were not always chosen. Moreover, Hix voiced his scepticism about first-reading agreements, which, in his opinion, increase the power of the rapporteur.

An encouraging finding is that session attendance rates were significantly up. This is not only due to the fact that it is the first year of this new legislature and that therefore MEPs are on their ‘best behaviour’ as attendance is also up in comparison to rates observed in the first year of the previous legislature. Hix hinted that this may have something to do with the new MEP statute.

VoteWatch.euintends to produce a similar annual report on the patterns within the European Council.

Two questions to Diana Wallis, EP vice-president

Is it fair to say that the ALDE group is currently leaning more to the left?

I don’t think that ‘left’ and ‘right’ are particularly helpful here because if you look at the [ VoteWatch.eu] analysis, voting is actually more issue-based. I think that in that sense it is clear that on free market issues we tend to vote one way, while on softer issues - the environment, civil liberties - we tend to vote another way. I wouldn’t say that it’s just ‘left’ and ‘right’, it’s more about the substance of the issues.

Is ALDE in ‘kingmaker’ position?

On one level, this observation is brilliant but I also agree it’s not who is kingmaker or who wins the most votes, it’s actually about what the votes are about and what we achieve for people out there.