How Europe’s most powerful party keeps lawmakers in line

BRUSSELS — Europe’s largest and most powerful faction, the European People’s Party, knows how to run a tight ship: The key is discipline.

The center-right EPP warns its 188 lawmakers that they will be punished with limited speaking time and diminished roles if they don’t follow the party line, an internal document obtained by POLITICO reveals. In some cases lawmakers will be blacklisted from speaking time allowances if they don’t inform the EPP in advance they won’t show.

“The EPP Group will only remain the strongest and most influential political Group in the European Parliament if loyalty towards the Group and the Group line are upheld,” the document reads.

The strategy is a hallmark of the EPP, helmed by its chairman, German political heavyweight Manfred Weber. While the commanding conservative leads with an iron fist to exert influence within the Brussels institutions, he leaves the implementation of group guidelines to his second-in-command, Chief Whip Jeroen Lenaers.

Lenaers is the top party enforcer, tasked with ensuring party discipline in a group with 27 nationalities.

“The guidelines are not rigidly enforced as strict rules but serve … as guiding principles for effective teamwork,” said Lenaers, a seasoned Dutch lawmaker.  

The whip guidelines, dated Jan. 15, 2025, have been in place, unchanged, for years, according to Lenaers.

In them the EPP lays out a couple of carrots, but mostly relies on lots of sticks. 

With loyalty comes influence

The EPP group’s leadership keeps a close eye on MEPs and rewards those who follow the party line with powerful negotiating positions on legislative files. Such prizes can include being selected as a rapporteur — the MEP in charge of drafting the Parliament’s common position — as a shadow rapporteur, or for another role for unspecified periods of time, according to the document.  

If a rapporteur goes against the party’s interest, someone else can be appointed to substitute for them and bypass them in negotiations in the Parliament, the document cautioned. 

Those who don’t get in line won’t be nominated for key positions for an unspecified time, the document noted.

That’s not to say rebellions don’t happen. In the previous mandate, for example, the Irish delegation broke ranks and backed a controversial EU law to boost nature restoration during a very tight vote, ultimately allowing the legislation to pass when the EPP had opposed it very strongly.

More recently, Spanish and Slovenian lawmakers voted against the new Commission in November. It’s unclear how that affected their standing in the group.

“We work closely together, aligning with our shared goals,” Lenaers said, but “at the same time, we recognize the right of members to vote according to their conscience and political convictions.”

Big Brother is watching

There are consequences, too, if members of the Parliament miss their allocated speaking times during plenary debates without giving 24 hours notice.

“Members who are on the speakers’ list and do not inform of their absence at the Plenary will no longer be given priority for speaking time in the next 6 months,” reads the document, threatening lawmakers with inclusion on a so-called blacklist if it happens repeatedly. 

Moreover, the EPP tracks attendance. Lawmakers who don’t show up for allocated speaking times will be left with no speaking times during the following plenary session, per the document. 

To ensure discipline, the EPP checks lawmakers’ voting records against the political direction from the leadership.

Tables and charts are compiled for each member and each national delegation “by month, quarter or semester,” the document stated.

MEPs receive a “personal and confidential letter” twice a year breaking down their attendance and voting in both committees and the plenary that they can compare to the group average. 

The data is forwarded to the group’s presidency, to the heads of national delegations and to the coordinators in each committee. It is used “when allocating reports” in committee and in drawing up the list of speakers for the plenary.

Following each plenary, the EPP’s leadership puts together an internal evaluation to break down the number of lawmakers, by nationality, who didn’t follow party guidelines. 

Lenaers said the processes “remain a continuous work in progress — always open to discussion and refinement when needed by our members.”