Seán Kelly was first elected to the European Parliament in June 2009 for Ireland South and re-elected for a second term in May 2014. He is a member of the EPP Group and leader of the Fine Gael party in the European Parliament since August 2014.

In the European Parliament, Seán sits on the Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee, the International Trade Committee and the Fisheries Committee. He is also a member of the European Parliament Delegations for relations with the United States, the countries of Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Iran.

In his first year in the European Parliament, Mr Kelly authored 3 reports on the International Fund for Ireland, the Future of Transport and the European Year of Volunteering. He has since contributed to reports on the Future of Agriculture, the Innovation Union, the European Dimension on Sport, Combating Early School Leaving and Unlocking the Potential of Cultural and Creative Industries, amongst others. Mr Kelly was voted 2014 MEP of the Year in the category of Digital Agenda for this work on data protection, cyber bullying and promoting Coder Dojo.

In 2015, he led discussions as a rapporteur ahead of the Paris Climate Agreement and represented the European Parliament at the COP21 at which the historic global agreement was finalised. Following this, he worked on a New Deal for Energy Consumers, finding ways to lower energy prices and advocating for a well-functioning, competitive and sustainable energy system. In 2017, he was appointed EPP shadow rapporteur for the recast of the Renewable Energy Directive, and also for the Committee opinion on the Effort Sharing Regulation for 2030.

As well as an extremely active parliamentarian, he is consistently ranked amongst the top MEPs in terms of speaking time and questions in Parliament.