Voting Monitoring

The European Parliament is the only directly elected body of the European Union. Of the current total of 720 MEPs, 20 come from Austria. In order to check how the Austrian MEPs actually vote on individual issues, we have been carrying out ÖGfE voting monitoring for years.

In addition to smaller plenary sessions in Brussels, MEPs vote in the plenary sessions in Strasbourg, which take place 12 times a year. We analyze their voting behavior on five selected legislative proposals and resolutions per plenary session, which are voted on by roll call.

In terms of democratic policy, ÖGfE vote monitoring is a very important instrument as it creates transparency. Due to the lack of compulsory club voting in the European Parliament, individual MEPs can decide freely according to their opinion and therefore also vote against their party line.