With European Elections only a month away, the time is right to look at which Member of the European Parliament (MEP) has most impacted policies and legislation during the current legislature. And that’s exactly what VoteWatch.eu has done. The list of the 100 most influential MEPs has been published together with a detailed methodology on how they created the ranking.
There are some interesting bits in the methodology showing the limited competence for sport and physical activity of the European Parliament. For one, the CULT committee which is responsible for sport is one of the less important committees to chair: “chairing ECON or ENVI is deemed to be more important than chairing CULT or DEVE”. Another sign of the limited impact of sport and physical activity is the fact that chairing an intergroup, such as the Sport Intergroup, is considered as little influential.
However, physical activity is also clearly part of the EU health agenda. Therefore the abovementioned ENVI committee, which is responsible for public health, is also taking actions to promote health enhancing physical activity. Many important issues for our sector are tackled by different committees. Skills development and qualifications, for example, are tackled by the MEPs from the EMPL committee, responsible for employment and social affairs. By being well aware of how these processes work, how competences are divided and who’s taking the important decisions EuropeActive is able to best represent the European Health and Fitness sector in Brussels. EuropeActive eagerly awaits the results of the upcoming European election and we’ll be ready to engage with the new parliament once the dust has settled down and the newly elected MEPs are selected and seated.