The 2021 Influence Index suggests female MEPs have the upper hand when influencing the EU’s health policy.
Our analysis is based on political and social media data from the one-year period up to August 2021.
Explore for more data insights.
| MEP Name | Political Score | Social Score | Overall Score | Rising Stars | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Peter LIESE  EPP, @peterliese Germany | 95 | 96.2 | 95.9 | |
 | Sara CERDAS  S&D, @sara_saracerdas Portugal | 100 | 87.8 | 93.9 | ^4 |
 | Bartosz ARŁUKOWICZ  EPP, @Arlukowicz Poland | 92 | 94.1 | 93.2 | ^1 |
 | Véronique TRILLET-LENOIR  Renew Europe, @VTrillet_Lenoir France | 84 | 100.0 | 91.9 | |
 | Pascal CANFIN Renew Europe, @pcanfin France | 89 | 92.9 | 91.0 | ^6 |
 | Alessandra MORETTI  S&D, @ale_moretti Italy | 93 | 84.4 | 88.8 | ^93 |
 | Nicolae ŞTEFĂNUȚĂ  Renew Europe, @nicustefanuta Romania | 86 | 76.6 | 81.5 | ^242 |
 | Dolors MONTSERRAT  EPP, @DolorsMM Spain | 54 | 96.8 | 75.6 | |
 | Michèle RIVASI Greens/EFA, @MicheleRivasi France | 43 | 99.2 | 70.8 | ^12 |
 | María Soraya RODRÍGUEZ RAMOS Renew Europe, @sorayarr_ Spain | 45 | 96.0 | 70.4 | ^27 |
 | Bas EICKHOUT  Greens/EFA, @BasEickhout Netherlands | 73 | 67.5 | 70.2 | ^12 |
 | Manfred WEBER EPP, @ManfredWeber Germany | 26 | 95.7 | 61.0 | ^39 |
 | Frances FITZGERALD  EPP, @FitzgeraldFrncs Ireland | 24 | 95.1 | 59.3 | ^3 |
 | Jytte GUTELAND  S&D, @JytteGuteland Sweden | 72 | 46.0 | 59.2 | ^99 |
 | Carlo CALENDA S&D, @CarloCalenda Italy | 20 | 97.0 | 58.7 | ^23 |
 | Pierre LARROUTUROU S&D, @larrouturou France | 23 | 94.3 | 58.7 | ^203 |
 | Manon AUBRY The Left, @ManonAubryFr France | 15 | 96.2 | 55.6 | |
 | Joanna KOPCIŃSKA ECR, @j_kopcinska Poland | 91 | 0.0 | 45.7 |
Sara Cerdas (S&D, Portugal) ranks first for political influence and Veronique Trillet-Lenoir (Renew Europe, France) for social influence. Both women play a leading role on key policy initiatives such as tackling cross-border threats to health. Peter Liese (EPP, Germany) is most influential when considering both political and social influence.
Qualified medical doctors occupy the top four places in overall influence, showing that experienced medical practitioners are shaping Europe’s health policies. Also noteworthy is that all top 10 MEPs for overall social and political influence sit on European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI Committee).
INFLUENCE BY COUNTRY
MEPs from Spain have most political influence on the EU’s health policy, on average, followed by Romania and Portugal. On social media, France is substantially ahead, compensating for ranking in the last place for political influence.
has no competence in health, which is not true. We even have a specific Article on health,
which is not true for many other important policies”
the next elections, and someone who's in politics out of passion.”
INFLUENCE BY POLITICAL GROUP
The Left-leaning Socialists & Democrats (S&D) group are most politically influential and have grown in influence since 2020, while MEPs from the Greens/EFA group lead when it comes to social influence.
INFLUENCE BY AGE AND GENDER
Female MEPs have marginally more political and significantly more social influence than their male peers in health policy. We also see a generational gap along the two dimensions of influence: female MEP over 60 years old wield the most political influence while MEPs under 39 perform best on social media.