Voting for the Trade Agreement : A case study of voting cohesion in the European Parliament

Sammanfattning

This thesis aims to analyze and describe the levels of voting cohesion within the party groups and nations in the European Parliament by analyzing the outcome of COM(2025)471. The essay also aims to understand the results by interpreting speeches held in debate before the voting event. The research question is: How did the voting result and cohesion levels turn out in the European Parliament in regard to COM(2025)471? And which reasons caused the result to turn out the way it did? This will be done using a mixed methodological approach by implementing Simon Hix’s Agreement Index for the primary question and analyzing voting motivations in speeches held by MEPs to answer the second question. Findings reveal that cohesion levels vary. EPP and The Left reach high levels of cohesion, despite being on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum. In the analysis of countries, Hungary stands out with a perfect 1.0 cohesion score, while France has the highest number of MEPs voting against the proposal. This essay aids in understanding MEP voting behavior, while adding to scientific literature by testing models and theories of general voting behavior in the space of the European Parliament.