About: committee chairs
National Front undermines French influence in Brussels
The meteoric rise of the French National Front in the 2014 elections has further undermined France's ailing influence in the European Parliament, according to a report by the Schuman Foundation. The French positions in the Council and the Commission have not deteriorated to the same extent. EURACTIV France reports.
Excluding political groups in EU Parliament is bad for democracy
A voting alliance between the three largest pro-European parties to block Nigel Farage's Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD) group from European Parliament committee chairs casts doubts over the Parliament's ability to guarantee pluralism, write Rebecca Harms and Philippe Lamberts. InfographicPromoted content
![INFOGRAPHIC: Who is who in the European Parliament? [Version 2.0]](https://www.euractiv.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/11/parliament-2014-2019-112014-en-v02.png)
INFOGRAPHIC: Who is who in the European Parliament? [Version 2.0]
After a first plenary session and a series committee meetings in early July 2014, key positions were distributed in the European Parliament. The European Parliament’s 22 committees held their first meeting on Monday (7 July). On the agenda was the election of committee chairs and vice-chairs. The week before, MEPs gathered for the Parliament's first plenary session in Strasbourg, and elected a president, vice-presidents and quaestors. They also appointed the leader(s) of their faction. The final leading positions were settled after one Vice-President, Corina Cretu, was selected to take up a Commissioner role in Jean-Claude Juncker's EU executive team. Find an overview of the Parliament's key faces for 2014-2019 in our infographic.