Invisible but Influential: How Parliamentary Assistants Can Shape the European Parliament’s China Agenda

Recent events involving Accredited Parliamentary Assistants (APAs), such as the Huawei scandal and the trial of Maximilian Krah’s assistant, highlighted the vulnerability of the European Parliament (EP) to Chinese influence and intelligence operations. APAs are essential to the work of MEPs: they conduct research, draft policy briefs, manage stakeholder relations, and serve as gatekeepers to their MEPs. Because of this strategic role and the privileged access it provides, APAs almost inevitably attract the attention of malign foreign actors targeting the EU. To shed more light on the topic, CHOICE decided to compile this exclusive dataset, aiming to find blind spots and recommend solutions to improve the Parliament’s resiliency.

This exclusive CHOICE policy paper offers a structured look at more than 3,000 APAs who served during the 9th and 10th European Parliament terms, focusing on their functions and recruitment. It rigorously combines data obtained through scraping of EP website archives, anonymized interviews of current and former MEPs, APAs and EP observers, and systematic open-source checks. The paper sets aside concrete allegations and individual cases to scrutinize the systemic issues.