After last week’s rejection of the joint resolution on the anti-Counterfeiting Tade Agreement (ACTA) by the European Parliament, and the adoption of a bad, pro-ACTA resolution tabled by the conservative EPP group, La Quadrature has analyzed the results of the vote. The final result of the vote was 306 for, and 322 against (with 26 abstentions). The results show an overall polarized poll, with the bulk of the political groups who tabled the resolution voting in favor (S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA, EUL/NGL), while the Conservatives rejected it (EPP and ECR). But details show that some MEPs did not follow their group’s position. The overall picture gives a clear view of who to convince in order to obtain a full rejection of ACTA during the upcoming consent vote.
After the rejection of the joint resolution and the adoption of the very unfortunate text tabled by the Conservatives, we have integrated the results in Political Memory, our wiki-based tool which allows us to track and rank the voting records of the Members of the European Parliament on the issues we work on.
- Ranking by country shows that countries who fare the worse on this vote are Hungary, Poland, United-Kingdom and Italy (among which 3 countries are among the Member States with the highest numbers of MEPs. By contrast, Estonia, Finland and Cyprus and Denmark score best on the ranking by country. France and Germany are the highest ranked among the “big” Member States, but not much above the average.
- Dissent within political groups: Among the political groups who supported the resolution, the following MEPs also voted against the resolution:
Jean-Luc MÉLENCHON (EUL/NGL, FR), Frédérique RIES (ALDE, BE), Louis MICHEL (ALDE, BE), Dirk STERCKX (ALDE, BE), Anne E. JENSEN (ALDE, DK), Bill NEWTON DUNN (ALDE, UK), Morten LØKKEGAARD (ALDE, DK), Olle SCHMIDT (ALDE, SE), Jens ROHDE (ALDE, DK), Toine MANDERS (ALDE, ND), Cecilia WIKSTRÖM (ALDE, SE), Hannu TAKKULA (ALDE, FI).Ranking by group also show that the ranking of the social-democrats (S&D group), signatory of the joint resolution, suffers from the defection of their 13 British members who all voted against the resolution:
Mary HONEYBALL (S&D, UK), Claude MORAES (S&D, UK), Arlene McCARTHY (S&D, UK), Stephen HUGDHES (S&D, UK), David MARTIN (S&D, UK), Peter SKINNER (S&D, UK), Catherine STIHLER (S&D, UK), Glenis WILLMOTT (S&D, UK), Linda McAVAN (S&D, UK), Derek VAUGHAN (S&D, UK), Brian SIMPSON (S&D, UK), Michael CASHMAN (S&D, UK), Richard HOWITT (S&D, UK). Why are UK Socialists so much in favour of ACTA?Likewise, all the Hungarian Members of the S&D group voted against their group‘s resolution by abstaining:
Edit HERCZOG (S&D, HU), Zita GURMAI (S&D, HU), Kinga GÖNCZ (S&D, HU) and Csaba Sándor TABAJDI (S&D, HU), contributing to give to Hungary its terrible score.All of the Portuguese S&D delegation but one Member casted the same, bad vote. They are:
Ana GOMES (S&D, PT), Edite ESTRELA (S&D, PT), Luís Paulo ALVES (S&D, PT), Elisa FERREIRA (S&D, PT), Vital MOREIRA (S&D, PT), António Fernando CORREIA DE CAMPOS (S&D, PT).The following MEPs also abstained:
Isabella LÖVIN (Greens/EFA, SE), Helga TRÜPEL (Greens/EFA, DE), Charalampos ANGOURAKIS (EUL/NGL, GR), Norica NICOLAI (ALDE, RO), Diana WALLIS (ALDE, UK), Baroness Sarah LUDFORD (ALDE, UK), Andrew DUFF (ALDE, UK), Brian CROWLEY (ALDE, IE).Given the fact that the final result of the vote was 306 for, and 322 against (with 26 abstentions), it is clear that the resolution would have passed if the above-mentioned MEPs had chosen to take a clear position against ACTA, according to their groups’ positions.
As for the Conservatives (EPP and ECR groups), they all rejected the joint resolution, with the notable exception of the following conservative MEPs who voted in favour:
Zuzana ROITHOVÁ (EPP, CS), Sirpa PIETIKÄINEN (EPP, FI), Luigi Ciriaco DE MITA (EPP, IT). They should be congratulated for their political courage, and urged to help convince their colleagues to help reject ACTA during the upcoming consent vote.