[LaurentS]

From my limited experience with calling MEPs, they don't always get the entire picture. Who could blame them for not being experts in web, nuclear energy, agricultural policies and more all at the same time? One way to help them is by calling them up and explaining our views on topics we care about. Mass emailing doesn't seem to do more than clog their spam filters, but a phone call actually seems to at least be listened to, if not acted on.

[smoe]

That is the other side of the coin. People and especially journalists expect any politician to have a short, quotable statement ready on any topic at any point in time and don't accept "I don't know" as an answer. Which is just a silly expectation.

I'd rather have a politician not having strong opinions on social issues (and doesn't vote on them) if they have proven expertise and focus on lets say agriculture. But lots of people would disqualify that person on the latter because they don't align with them politically on the former.

Maybe I'm too cynical, but I have my doubts that calling them really changes their mind, or if they just count the number of calls and when it reaches the threshold to endanger their reelection, they act on it. That kind of coercion is perfectly fine by me, if the system doesn't provide other tools to the public like more direct democracy in Switzerland, but it is not ideal.