Who is for and against free trade in the European Parliament

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Which members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are the most in favour of free trade and which, to the contrary, are the most opposed to it? Not necessarily those you might think, a VoteWatch Europe study published in September 2016 showed.

For the first time, VoteWatch Europe (VWE) mapped the positions of every MEP towards free trade on the basis of 15 key trade decisions made in the current EP term over 2014-2016. VWE analysed a total of 11,000 individual votes (15 key decisions x 751 MEPs) to understand how each MEP thinks on trade issues.

It found that the main predictor of the views of the Members of the European Parliament is their affiliations to the political families. However, their nationalities, age and other personal features also play an important role and become more prominent in special cases.

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