Maltese MEPs ‘Punch Above Their Weight’ As Roberta Metsola Ranks 2nd Most Influential
Roberta Metsola has been ranked the second most influential Member of the European Parliament in a study published by EU Matrix.
The sitting EP President and European People’s Party Vice-President garnered an overall Total Influence Score of 97.01% – second only to the German delegate Manfred Weber, Chair of the EPP.
The study found that the most influential overall national delegation came from Germany – performing with high levels of influence, even when accounting for the size of their representation.
This high level of influence may go some way towards explaining Metsola coming second to Weber.
On the opposite end of the large country spectrum, the Italians and French were found to be underperforming compared to what could be expected based on how many delegates their nations have in the EP.
Amongst countries with smaller representations, Malta, Luxembourg, and Finland have proven to be “punching above their weight” – meaning that Malta’s MEPs have proven to have an outsized influence on the European level, despite sending a fairly small delegation to the EP floor.
Amongst these influential Maltese MEPs – Alex Agius Saliba was ranked as the 35th most influential MEP in the European Parliament – and one of the top ten most influential MEPs in the digital field.
“Another powerful vote of confidence in the work I’m pursuing in the European Parliament,” said the MEP in a post to social media.
This latter achievement is likely a result of Agius’ pioneering work pushing for the implementation of a universal charger law for laptops and smartphones.
Despite meeting with Silicone Valley tech giants and seemingly convincing them of the importance of that law – Agius had to take to the European Parliament floor to denounce rumours that Apple was trying to circumvent the spirit of regulations.
This latter achievement is likely a result of Agius’ pioneering work pushing for the implementation of a universal charger law for laptops and smartphones.
Agius’ achievements stretch beyond the digital sector, and he was recently in Parliament protecting Maltese interests and the right for the Maltese language to be used in official proceedings.
The EU Matrix study was conducted with the aim of helping public affairs professionals and citizens understand more about the influences behind EU policymaking – to sharpen the effectiveness of our voting power.
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