Ranking: Former Romanian PM, labor minister among ten most politically influential MEPs

Former Romanian prime minister Dacian Cioloş and former labor minister Dragoș Pîslaru are among the ten most politically influential MEPs, according to the Influence Index 2020, put together by think tank VoteWatch Europe and BCW Brussels.

The Influence Index 2020: Top 100 most politically influential MEPs measures influence through two dimensions: political influence (the ability to change legislation, win votes, and shape debates) and social influence (the ability to reach people, shift the public conversation, and build a community of support).

Cioloș, a former EU Commissioner for Agriculture and currently the leader of the PLUS party and the Chair of Renew Europe group, is ranked at number eight in the index, where European Parliament’s president David Maria Sassoli takes up the first spot. Iratxe García Pérez, the chair of the S&D group, ranks second, while Manfred Weber, the chair of the EPP group, is third. The former European Parliament president and current VP of the EPP group Antonio Tajani ranks fourth.

Dragoș Pîslaru, another Romanian MEP, also of the Renew Group, ranks tenth, and is the most influential MEP on EU economic policy due to his contribution to files on economic and budgetary issues.

Cioloș and Pîslaru also feature in a top of the rising stars - top 5 most influential newcomers. Cioloș managed to become the leader of Renew Europe, an exception among newcomer MEPs who usually perform well on legislative activities. Pîslaru, a former labor minister in the government of Cioloș, scores very high on legislative indicators, as he co-leads several policy files on economic and budgetary issues, among them the Budgetary Instrument for Convergence and Competitiveness (BICC) for the euro area, and also the motion for resolution on cross-border seasonal workers.

Among other Romanian MEPs featured in the sectorial influence assessment is Cristian-Silviu Bușoi from the European People’s Party (EPP) group. Bușoi, a doctor by training, ranks third among the most influential MEPs on EU’s health policy.

Dan Nica, a Romanian member of S&D, is fifth among the most influential MEPs on EU’s digital policy, propelled by his background in communication sciences, which includes a Ph.D. in this field, and as a minister of communications and information technology before being elected to the European Parliament in 2014.

More about the Influence Index 2020 here. The list of Romanian MEPs included in the top is