Skip to content
← Insights
Voting21 May 2026·7 min read

565 MEPs Voted Against the Climate Law in November. By February, They Voted For It.

The biggest mass vote reversal in the 10th Parliament happened on the EU's climate neutrality framework. Every political group participated. What changed in 90 days?

ByGovLens Data Team
565
MEPs who flipped from against to for on the climate neutrality amendment
149
EPP members who reversed — the largest single-group flip
90
days between the two votes (Nov 2025 → Feb 2026)

The reversal

On 13 November 2025, the European Parliament voted on amendments to the EU climate neutrality framework. Hundreds of MEPs voted against. On 10 February 2026 — just 90 days later — 565 of those same MEPs reversed their position and voted for the legislation.

This is the largest mass vote flip GovLens has recorded in the 10th Parliament. The second-largest: 490 MEPs flipped on the corporate sustainability reporting amendments. Both are Omnibus simplification files — legislation that rewrites or weakens existing rules under the banner of reducing regulatory burden.

MEPs who flipped against → for by political group
EPP
149 MEPs
S&D
110 MEPs
Renew
69 MEPs
PfE
65 MEPs
ECR
57 MEPs
Greens/EFA
43 MEPs
Left
35 MEPs
ESN
20 MEPs
NI
17 MEPs

Every group participated

The EPP led with 149 flippers, followed by S&D (110), Renew (69), PfE (65), and ECR (57). Even the Greens/EFA — the group most ideologically aligned with climate legislation — had 43 members reverse. The Left contributed 35. This was not a partisan shift; it was a Parliament-wide change of position.

The question journalists should be asking: what happened between November and February? The text was amended in committee. Trilogue negotiations shifted the balance. And lobby meetings on climate, energy, and industrial competitiveness surged in Q1 2026. GovLens tracks every vote by every MEP on this procedure — compare the November and February roll calls yourself.

The pattern repeats

The corporate sustainability due diligence Omnibus saw 490 flippers. The safe third country asylum regulation saw 201. These are not obscure procedural votes — they are landmark files that reshape EU climate, business, and migration policy. When hundreds of MEPs reverse on the same file within months, the legislative record tells one story. The lobby meeting timeline may tell another.