EU Parliament defers vote on anti-CAA resolution
Monitoring Report
BRUSSELS: Initially supported by at least 560 MEPs from five of the largest groups in the 751-strong European Parliament, voting on a damning resolution against India’s contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was postponed on Wednesday till March in a move that many members criticised as a prime example of the European Union “capitulating and crumbling” in the face of pressure from India’s diplomatic lobby.
In a biting speech during the debate in Brussels on Wednesday, Scott Ainslie of the European Free Alliance, popularly known as the Greens party, condemned the deferment of the vote saying he was “heartbroken” at the “appalling decision taken today”, which he said was the result of the EU prioritising “yet another trade summit with India over our commitment to protecting human rights”.
“We’ve refused to take a stand on this Islamophobic policy which could drive 200 million Muslims, nearly half the EU’s population, towards statelessness, incarceration or deportation,” Ainslie said.The Greens’ MEP pointed out that all major groups in the EU Parliament, including the European People’s Party (EPP) – the largest group in Europe with 184 elected members, had “co-signed” the resolution but “today have chosen to postpone the vote yet again”.