Unusual EU Parliamentarian’s behavior: Sirpa Pietikäinen

In theory, EU Parliamentarians follow the instructions of the rapporteurs or of their political group coordinators when casting a vote on a decision. This makes many think that if they know the position of the leading MEPs in a group, they know how the entire group will behave. The underlying assumption is that many MEPs are not aware of the subtleties of dossiers that are outside of their direct area of expertise, and hence these MEPs are expected to “follow the herd” without really knowing what’s being decided.

In practice, however, things are often very different and, by looking closely into MEPs’ behavior, we spot some very interesting (and counter-intuitive) nuances that seem to indicate that (at least some) MEPs are much more aware of what’s being decided than one would think (possibly due to advocacy / lobby campaigns that have targeted them).

Take MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen, for example. She belongs to the largest EU political family, the European People’s Party (EPP). However, when following closely her voting records, it turns out that she voted more often alongside the Socialists&Democrats (S&D) or even the Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) group, than her EPP colleagues.