40 Krišjānis Kariņš

Few people outside Latvia will know Kariņš, who hails from the smallest party in the Saeima, the country’s parliament. But that doesn’t affect Kariņš’ relevance to this list. In January, Kariņš became the fourth member of the current European Parliament to leave Brussels to become either head of state or government — not counting Estonia’s Kallas, who has been asked to form a government but not yet succeeded — and he’s declared that his mission is to clean up the biggest problem in the Baltics: money laundering. He wants action not only at home, but thinks the EU needs to “seriously consider” adding anti-money laundering to the European Central Bank’s remit.

Return to the full listing of the 40 MEPs who mattered in 2014-2019.