At the request of the EPP group in the European Parliament, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) will vote on the provisional agreement on the Return Regulation on Monday 15 June, with a plenary vote scheduled for Wednesday 17 June in Strasbourg, according to our information. These deadlines follow the conclusion of negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council last week (see EUROPE 13878/1).
While left-wing MEPs have already expressed their intention to reject the text overwhelmingly, major divisions remain within the Renew Europe group, even though the text’s lead rapporteur, Malik Azmani (Dutch), comes from it. The day after the final ‘trilogue’, he had in fact acknowledged that he would have to work to “convince” his own colleagues to secure a favourable vote in plenary (see EUROPE 13879/4).
The split was further confirmed on Wednesday 10 June, with a new press release from Fabienne Keller. In it, the French MEP announced that she had tabled an amendment aimed at explicitly excluding families with children from the scope of returns to ‘return centres’ – a measure she described as a “human and legal red line”. Warning of a risk of “failure for the EU” if the text is adopted as it stands, she therefore issued a cross-party appeal to support her initiative ahead of the 17 June vote. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)