In a final twist, the reform of the regulation on the return of irregular migrants has finally left the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties: in the vote held on Monday 9 March, the ‘counter-report’ by shadow rapporteur François-Xavier Bellamy (European People’s Party, French) won by a wide margin over that of the main rapporteur, Malik Azmani (Renew Europe, Dutch).
The text was adopted with 41 votes in favour, 32 against and one abstention, despite an attempt by the...