Committee on Foreign Affairs Extraordinary meeting Vote

19 October 2026

AFET European Parliament

Follow its sittings
03:51 - 04:36
Speaker 2
Ladies and gentlemen.  Ladies and gentlemen, I will only begin the meeting if we have silence in the room.  I will only start the meeting when there is silence in the room.  Now, can I ask the group of young men at the end of the room, if you want to continue in this room, could you please stop your conversations now or you can continue them outside. 
04:36 - 04:39
We are all young men. 
04:39 - 04:42
Speaker 1
But you're not the young men standing at the back of the room. 
04:42 - 05:24
Speaker 2
Right, once again, could we please have your attention now.  Thank you.  So, item number one, the adoption of our agenda, any comments from your side, that is not the case, then we can adopt the agenda as it stands.  I have no announcements to make from my side apart from the fact that our meeting as usual is being webstreamed and we have interpretation available in the full alphabet language profile except for Danish and Slovak.  Item number three, this is an electronic vote on the EU-Syria political relation, our rapporteur is Nathalie Loiseau from the Renew group, Nathalie would you like to take the floor? 
05:24 - 05:34
Speaker 3
Thank you chair, but I am fully aware that I'm sitting just between your vote and your dinner, so I will abstain from taking the floor, but please don't abstain from voting my report. 
05:34 - 05:56
Thank you Nathalie, you have increased your popularity by these short words, that's for sure.  Then, before proceeding to the formal vote, let us do a test vote as usual in order to check that all voting machines are functioning properly.  Please insert your card and the first vote will just be simple yes, no or abstention. 
05:56 - 07:54
Speaker 2
Please go ahead, the vote is open.  So we have 75 colleagues on board.  We can then vote.  We now vote on the draft report.  I don't know what the reason is for all these conversations, we're in the middle of a voting process. 

So, compromise amendment 1 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.  Compromise amendment 2 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.  Compromise amendment 3 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.  Compromise amendment 4 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.  Compromise amendment 5 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. 

We move on to compromise amendment 6 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.  Compromise amendment 7 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.  Compromise amendment 8 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.  We can move on to the final vote and this is a roll-call vote, the vote is open. 

We have four colleagues missing.  Okay, then we close the vote, and this report has been adopted: 46 in favor, 13 against, and 12 abstentions.  Congratulations to the rapporteur.  We move on to item number four.  The next vote is on the draft report towards an EU strategy to protect and strengthen the international justice system and its institutions, mechanisms, and partners, for which Mounir Satouri is the rapporteur. 

07:54 - 07:57

David McAllister

Mounir, would you like to take the floor?

07:57 - 08:08

Mounir Satouri

À part dire que je vais pas plus vous retarder, Madame Loiseau a ouvert la voie et remercier les shadows pour leur travail, je n'ai rien d'autre à rajouter, Monsieur le Président.

08:08 - 09:45

David McAllister

Thank you for this excellent contribution. Then we can continue with our votes on this item number four. We have a vote block one. Who's in favor? Against?

Abstentions? That is adopted. So we can immediately move on to compromise amendment seven. Who's in favor? Against?

Abstentions? Adopted. We move on to compromise amendment eight. In favor? Against?

Abstentions? Adopted.

Compromise amendment nine. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

Compromise amendment ten. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

We move on to vote block two. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

That means we can carry on with compromise amendment eighteen. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

Compromise amendment nineteen. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

Compromise amendment twenty. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

We vote on the vote block three. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

We move on to compromise amendment twenty-four. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

We move on to compromise amendment twenty-five. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

After twenty-five, we move on to compromise amendment twenty-six. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

09:45 - 09:50

Compromise amendment twenty-seven. In favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

09:50 - 10:57

David McAllister

Compromise amendment 29 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. Compromise amendment 30 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. Compromise amendment 31 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. I love this voting list. We can go to the final vote.

This is a roll call vote and the vote is now open. Colleagues, we have one green too many. Now it's fine. Five colleagues missing. Right, the vote is closed.

And this is 50 in favor, 18 against and four abstentions. Congratulations, Mounir Satouri. So, our next item is at quarter past. We're waiting for our DEVE colleagues, so you have five minutes of spare time.

14:19 - 14:21

Speaker 5

Hey, man! How are you?

14:21 - 14:26

Speaker 6

Oh, it's good. Good to stand, good, very good. Good, yeah. Do, do. Puoi copiare tranquillamente sia da lei che da lui, che tanto sono uguali.

15:22 - 17:05

David McAllister

So, dear colleagues, May I kindly ask you to now be seated. I would like to welcome to this next item, the chairman of the DEVE committee, Barry Andrews, and all DEVE members, like I have already welcomed all AFET members a few minutes ago. I would like to thank the DEVE colleagues for the excellent cooperation between both our committees on this joint report establishing Global Europe. I know that the rapporteurs and the shadow rapporteurs have worked very hard on this proposal and in a true spirit of compromise.

We will now proceed to vote on the joint AFET-DEVE draft report on the Commission proposal for a regulation establishing Global Europe.

In case the draft report is adopted, we will then vote on the decision to enter into inter-institutional negotiations in line with Rule 72 of our Rules of Procedure. We need to take this decision by an absolute majority, so calculating from a total of 79 AFET members and 25 DEVE members, this brings us to 53 members who will need to vote in favor of entering into inter-institutional negotiations. I was informed that both the Patriots for Europe group and the ECR group wish to express a minority position on the report, the floor will be given to them after the vote. Before we proceed to the vote, let me give the floor to the co-rapporteurs Michael Gahler for AFET and Robert Biedroń for DEVE in case they would like to say a few words. Michael?

17:05 - 17:34

Michael Gahler

Yeah, just in line with the previous rapporteurs who made it very short, I would like to thank very much not only my co-rapporteur, but all the colleagues and especially our excellent staff both in the committee secretariats and in the political groups and in our offices, personally in my office as well. It was really an excellent job to deliver on hard issues, but we found compromises that are viable and I thank to all who contributed. Thank you.

17:34 - 17:36

Speaker 9

Thank you, Michael. Robert.

17:36 - 18:03

Robert Biedroń

Well, in the spirit of compromise, let me join these thankful words for my dear friend Michael Gahler, with whom I had honor and pleasure to work on that. All the shadow rapporteurs from whole political spectrum, you were very devoted for this report and worked hard. And of course, both secretariats, the staff who worked with us. Thank you very much. And let's vote.

Thank you.

18:03 - 18:26

Thank you, Robert. So, dear colleagues, please get your voting cards ready. We will first do once again a test vote to check if no group is overrepresented. The test vote is a simple yes, no, or abstention. The vote is open now.

18:26 - 19:43

David McAllister

So, we have one colleague from the ESN too many. Somebody will have to pull out. So, then we have 98 colleagues present and 95 have participated. We can now proceed to vote on the draft report first and subsequently on the decision to enter into inter-institutional agreements. So, we first vote on compromise amendment block.

Who's against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment 12 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. Compromise amendment 25A in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.

Who's in favor?

Compromise amendment 28A in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. And now we have to go through all these. Mr. Hölvényi, you're keeping us busy. 113 in favor, against, abstentions, rejected. 115 in favor, against, abstentions, rejected.

19:43 - 20:09

188 in favor, against, abstentions, rejected. 309 in favor, against, abstentions, rejected. 413 in favor, against, abstentions, rejected. 531 in favor, against, abstentions, rejected. Compromise amendment 91 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted.

20:09 - 20:18

Compromise amendment 102 in favor, against, abstentions, adopted. We can then vote on the draft text as amended and this is a roll call vote.

20:18 - 21:39

David McAllister

The vote is open. Two colleagues have not voted yet. Last chance is now. Okay, the vote is closed. This has been voted 63 in favor, 27 against, and 5 abstentions.

And now we vote on the decision to enter into inter-institutional negotiations. This is also a roll call vote. The vote is open. Everyone's on board. The vote is closed.

And this has been adopted 61 in favor, 34 against, and 2 abstentions. Colleagues, remain seated. We now give the floor to the representative... Hey! Look, we're not finished yet, Udo.

Never ever, we are never finished. Given the... I will now give the floor to the representative of the Patriots for Europe group to express his minority position. Please.

21:39 - 23:37

António Tânger Corrêa

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And here... we reject the proposed Global Europe instrument as it is current form, its excessive budget and the further expansion of EU competences at the expense of national sovereignty. The proposed 200 billion budget represents an unjustifiable interest and must be substantially reduced to priorities serving member states' interests. EU funding must complement member states' action, not finance Brussels' geopolitical ambitions. European funding must be subject to strict conditionality, transparency and accountability.

Funding must be suspended in cases of corruption, misuse, support for terrorist organizations or violations of fundamental rights, including those of national and religious minorities. EU taxpayers' money must not sustain regimes working against interests of member states. Targeted cooperation must remain possible when serving European interests, particularly on migration control, returns and readmission.

Development assistant must prevent migration and support economic cooperation to serve long-term stability and security. Countries refusing to cooperate on return and readmission of their nationals must face suspension of EU financial assistance. The aim of external actions must be combating migration and support people contributing to development in their home countries. Funding for ideological projects and politically driven NGOs must be eliminated. EU external action must respect national sovereignty and prioritize European security and interest.

23:37 - 23:43

Speaker 12

Thank you.

23:43 - 23:52

David McAllister

Thank you. I now give the floor to the representative of the ESN group to express the group's minority position. Bitte sehr.

23:52 - 25:45

Hans Neuhoff

Thank you, Chair. We firmly reject this report and the transformation of the EU budget into an instrument of geopolitical intervention.

While European families, farmers, and businesses face mounting costs, Global Europe generously allocates €200.3 billion to external action, alongside up to €100 billion in additional support for Ukraine, including loans backed by the EU budget beyond the ordinary MFF ceilings. We oppose the €43.2 billion Europe pillar, which finances enlargement and pre-accession policies that ESN fundamentally rejects, and oppose ideologically driven interventions such as the reconstruction of Gaza. The Commission gains extensive discretion to redirect funding towards short-term political objectives without corresponding parliamentary or Member State oversight. Moreover, the criteria for suspending funding to countries that refuse to cooperate on migration and readmission remain insufficiently defined. Global Europe represents a massive redistribution of taxpayers' money, yet European taxpayers are not its primary beneficiaries.

Humanitarian aid should remain the responsibility of Member States.

The EU must return to its fundamental purpose: delivering prosperity, peace and security to its own citizens before financing ambitions elsewhere in the world, not the other way around. Thank you.

25:45 - 26:41

Barry Andrews

It just remains for me, colleagues, to thank the co-rapporteurs for this agreement. I was obviously worried about this file at the very beginning, but I think the two committees were very well served by the co-rapporteurs that were appointed in this regard. And I think it demonstrates that the Parliament is responsible. It is ambitious and realistic, and we have found common ground on a really crucial issue for the next period of the MFF. It just remains for me to say that our draft report and mandate will be placed on the agenda at the next part-session in November.

The overall approach endorsed by the Conference of Presidents for all MFF sectoral reports remains in place. Inter-institutional negotiations can start only after the Council has adopted full mandates. So I'd like to thank the co-rapporteurs once again, and thank you very much. And now we'll go to the in-camera agenda item, so we'd ask everybody who's not supposed to be here for the Sakharov Prize...

Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.