Aanwezigheidscijfers parlementsleden nu makkelijk te vinden op website Europees Parlement (en)

The European Parliament has published collated attendance records of each MEP for the plenary sessions over the 2004-2009 parliamentary term. The records show the dates on which the MEP attended plenary sessions and their overall attendance record as a percentage.

The attendance records can be found alongside the short profile of each MEP on the EP website. These profiles already included links to every question put by the MEP, every report and opinion he/she drew up as part of Parliament’s legislative work, every speech he/she made in plenary and every written declaration he/she tabled.

The Bureau of the European Parliament (its President and 14 Vice-Presidents) decided on 12 January to publish the attendance figures in a collated format before the elections of 4-7 June; the full chamber voted for this in a resolution adopted on 14 January.

This information was already public, but the new system makes it much simpler to see at a glance the attendance record of a particular MEP. It needs to be born in mind that these records are raw data and do not include corrections for justified absence for reasons such as illness, parental leave or authorised parliamentary delegation business.

In due course, it is planned that attendance records at future committee meetings should also be published, though a new system will be required, as the current format of records for committee meetings does not enable meaningful attendance data to be collated in the same way as for plenary sessions.