Committee on Foreign Affairs Joint meeting Committee on Development Extraordinary meeting Vote

Name: Committee on Foreign Affairs Joint meeting Committee on Development Extraordinary meeting Vote
Uploaded: 2026-10-19T17:15:00+00:00
Duration: 3402 s

00:20 - 02:06

Speaker 1

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 ESN 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?

02:06 - 02:33

Speaker 3

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.

02:33 - 02:35

Speaker 4

Thank you, Michael. Robert?

02:35 - 03:03

Speaker 5

Well, in this 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.

03:03 - 03:27

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.

03:27 - 04:07

Speaker 1

So, we have one colleague from the ESN too many. Somebody will have to pull out. So, when 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 interinstitutional agreements. So, we first vote on compromise amendment block. Who's in favor?

Who's against? Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment 12 in favor? Against?

04:07 - 04:56

David McAllister

Abstentions? Adopted. Compromise amendment 25A in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Adopted. Compromise amendment 28A in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

And now we have to go through all of these. Mr. Holvényi, you're keeping us busy. 113 in favor? Against? Abstentions?

Rejected. 115 in favor? Against? Abstentions? Rejected.

188 in favor? Against? Abstentions? Rejected. 309 in favor?

Against? Abstentions? Rejected. 413 in favor? Against?

04:56 - 05:02

Abstentions? Rejected. 531 in favor? Against? Abstentions?

05:02 - 05:09

Rejected. Compromise amendment 91 in favor? Against? Abstentions? Adopted.

05:09 - 05:19

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.

05:19 - 07:31

The vote is open. Two colleagues have not voted yet. Last chance is now. Okay, the vote is closed. And this has been voted 63 in favor, 27 against, and five 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 two abstentions. Colleagues, remain seated. We now give the floor to the representative... Hey! Look, we're not finished yet, Udo.

07:20 - 08:43

António Tânger Corrêa

Must be suspend 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 readmissing or readmission of their nationals must face suspension of EU financial assistance.

I will now give the floor to the representative of the Patriots for Europe group to express his minority position, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We reject the proposed Global Europe instrument as it is in its 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 increase and must be substantially reduced to priorities serving member states' interests.

The aim of external action 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 interests. Thank you.

08:43 - 08:53

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

08:53 - 10:45

Hans Neuhoff

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 ECR 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.

Thank you, Chair.

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.

10:45 - 11:40

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.

Interinstitutional 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...