The new European Parliament more men… fewer women and leans to the right

Roberta Metsola will lead a new European Parliament with 720 members from the EU’s 27 member states.

Last week, all the committees of the European Parliament held their own constituent meetings, electing a president and four vice-presidents to lead the twenty committees and subcommittees that make up the institution.

This was the first challenge to the Patriots of Europe, a group founded by current Hungary Prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

It has 84 members, making it the third largest group in the European Parliament.

The center-right coalition groups that supported Ursula von der Leyen’s reappointment, the European People’s Party, the Socialists, the Democrats, and Renew Europe, maintained their health cordon, resulting in Orban’s group losing two seats on the Transport, Tourism and Culture and Education committees.

Nationals also lost vice-chairmen on the committees on agriculture, development, environment, legal affairs, civil affairs and internal affairs, and budget control.

In addition to increasing the number of members of the new European Parliament, the committees have undergone changes in their composition.

The entry of the European Patriots and Far-Right Sovereign Europe Party has changed the political balance of some committees.

For example, the composition of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development is predominantly right-leaning with 25 of the 48 seats.

After the European elections in June, the new European Parliament saw the largest decline in the percentage of women’s representation since the first direct elections in 1979.

Women account for 38.5% of MEPs or 277 out of 720 members, 2.1% less than the previous legislature, where they held 46% of the seats.

While women in France, Sweden and Finland account for more than 50% of MEPs, in Cyprus the proportion is less than 15%.

Three key positions in Brooks were won, Roberta Metsola as EU parliament President, Ursula von der Leyen at the European Commission, and Kaja Kallas who will be appointed High Representative.

In total, out of 20 committees and subcommittees in Parliament, only seven committees and subcommittees headed by women candidates.

At the first conference of presidents on July 22, the head of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, called for the abandonment of the principle of gender equality in the distribution of committee chairmanship.

The Committee with the largest proportion of women is the Women’s Affairs Committee, which focuses on women’s rights and gender equality, while the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) is clearly dominated by male MEPs.

Besides women, young people represent another large group underrepresented on the council. The average age of members of parliament is now 50, the same as five years ago, and both the youngest and elder members of the European Parliament belong to the left.

Austrian Lina Schilling, 23, will participate in the European Parliament committees of the Foreign Affairs Committee (ENVI), while 76-year-old Italian Leuluca Orlando will participate in the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET).

The country with the oldest legislators is Luxembourg, with an average age of 60, and by contrast, Malta has the smallest group of politicians, with an average age of 41.

The European Parliament’s electoral law allows all professional backgrounds to join it.

Of the 720 new legislators for the next five years, there aren’t only former European commissioners and prime ministers, but also professional, influential footballers and singers.

But parliament has a place for everyone, including the first woman to score a hat-trick at the World Cup.

Carolina Morace, a former professional footballer, joined Italy’s Five Star Movement party in 2024 and was elected to the European Parliament, and will be a member of the committee dealing with women’s rights.

András Tivadar Kulja (European People’s Party) is also a well-known name in Hungary, where he was a surgeon before jumping into European politics.

He has a TikTok account talking about medicine and has more than 300,000 followers, and he has been elected Vice-Chair of the Environment Committee and will also be a member of the Subcommittee on Public Health.