The European Parliament voted almost unanimously on the CRII investment initiative in response to Coronavirus (683 votes in favour, 1 against and 4 abstentions) and the changes to the European Union Solidarity Fund (671 votes in favour, 3 against and 14 abstentions) at the extraordinary plenary session on Thursday 26 March.
The results were not made known until around 10.30 p.m. due to the lengthy and laborious remote voting procedure, which required the signed and scanned ballot papers to be sent by e-mail, or even written entirely by hand for those MEPs who did not have a printer available.
On the early afternoon of Thursday 26 March, the use of the urgency procedure to vote on the measures received the clear approval of the European Parliament: - for CRII, 686 votes in favour and one abstention ; - for the amendment of the EUSF, 684 votes in favour, 1 vote against and 2 abstentions. As expected, the amendments tabled by the far-right group ID were rejected (see EUROPE 12455/4).
It is now the turn of the Council of the EU to adopt these measures by written procedure. The results are due on Monday, we are told.
CRII 2? The European Commission may soon return with a new set of measures at the insistence of Member States (see other news, EUROPE 12249/7). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)