The European parliament’s failure to fully reflect the EU’s diverse population has caused an “identity crisis”, campaigners have said, just days ahead of a vote that is expected to elect even fewer Black, Asian and minority ethnic MEPs.
In an analysis shared exclusively with the Guardian, the European Network Against Racism found that in the parliament’s last mandate, just 4.3% of MEPs were from racial and ethnic minorities – a proportion that falls drastically short of the estimated 10% of the EU population who identify as such.
The wide gap was exacerbated by Brexit, with the departure of the UK MEPs in 2020 sending the proportion of racialised minorities in the European parliament tumbling to 3.5% – just 25 of 705 MEPs, according to a 2020 analysis.
“I think this really tells us a lot about our democracy,” said Nourhene Mahmoudi, an advocacy and policy adviser with the antiracism network. “Europe is living in an identity crisis because the European parliament, from the research and data that we have collected, does not represent the entire European population.”
In practice, say campaigners, this gap means people with lived experience of problems such as racism and inequality are often not at the table during key European discussions, hindering efforts to create policy that addresses the needs of the EU’s varied population. “This disparity poses fundamental questions about the democratic legitimacy of the institutions, particularly the European parliament,” said Mahmoudi.
With polls suggesting support for far-right and nationalist parties will surge in June’s European elections, campaigners are bracing for a political landscape that they fear could further stigmatise marginalised communities – and with fewer MEPs of colour in parliament.
Data collected by the antiracism network showed a stark contrast between leftwing and centre parties, where in many cases some efforts have been made to include minority ethnic candidates on party lists, and rightwing parties, where this level of representation was low and in some cases completely absent.
