Almost two years went by since the elections in 2014. Thanks to VoteWatch we can analyze the attendance rate of MPs in the european parliament. Italian deputies are ranked 11th. Ahead of the pack: Austria, Malta and Croatia.
The attendance rate of MPs in the Italian parliament is always a very controversial topic on the media. The activity of monitoring how much deputies and senators work is carried out in Italy by openparlamento. Approximately the same kind of job is done by VoteWatch for european institutions.
The european parliament meets less frequently than national parliaments – usually 4 or 5 times a month – which usually results in a much higher attendance rate for MPs. Since July of 2014, 102 plenary sessions took place, and 3.103 roll-call votes.
Italian MEPs have the 11th highest attendance rate, with an average score of participation in roll-call votes of 91.27%. The percentage is higher than the one of all the other main european countries: France with 89.75% (15th), Germany with 89.30% (16th), Spain with 89.06% (17th) and United Kingdom with 84.69% (28th). Only MEPs from Greece do worse than British deputies.
The “gold medal” goes to Austria (MEPs attend 95.69% of roll-call votes), ahead of Malta (95.08%) and Croatia (94.67%).
The average participation in roll-call votes of political groups during plenary sessions is also worth analyzing. At the moment the highest score is recorded by the Progressive alliance of socialist and democrats in the european parliament (S&D) – 91,20%. Second place goes to the Greens/Efa (91%), right ahead of Alde (90.18%). What is interesting about this analysis is that most euro-skeptic groups have a low attendance rate in roll-call votes: Europe of nations and freedom (88.63%), european conservatives and reformists (867.84%) and Europe of freedom and direct democracy (85.07%).
Participation by MEPs in external official activities on behalf of the European Parliament can impact on the roll call votes participation rate.
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