Parliament’s vote on the EU’s Covid recovery plan, which is due to take place on Wednesday afternoon, has been postponed after the debate on Tuesday’s recovery package resumed early in the morning.
The plenary session began at 2 pm on Tuesday afternoon and ended at 4.24 am on Wednesday morning. Still, despite the duration of the marathon’s 14-hour debate, not all MEPs had the opportunity to speak on the subject, the Speaker of Parliament Anu Vehviläinen (Cen) decided to adjourn the sitting.
On Wednesday morning, Parliament had not provided any further information on when the postponed vote would take place.
Vice-President of Parliament Juho Eerola (Finns) told Yle that he believed that the discussion would continue on Wednesday.
"The vote cannot take place as originally planned, as comments are still available. I think the debate will continue for a long time today," Eerola said.
According to Parliament’s current timetable, the next part-session will not be held until Tuesday next week, as no part-sessions are scheduled for Resurrection Thursday or Friday.
However, it is possible that a decision will be taken later on Wednesday to hold an extraordinary plenary session so that the vote can take place this week.
The MPs from the Finnish Party gave 24 speeches
By 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the sitting was still pending, but the legislature was almost empty. The last 24 speeches of the session were made by representatives of the Finnish Party, and no other party member spoke after 1.30.
The Finnish Parliament has had marathon debates on EU issues. In 1994, the debate on Finland’s accession to the European Union lasted four and a half days – the longest parliamentary debate in Finland’s post-war history.
The vote on Wednesday was intended to decide whether Finland should approve the EU’s € 750 billion Covid stimulus package and seven-year budget framework, about € 1,074 billion. If at least one Member State does not accept the package, the recovery plan will not be put in place.
The approval of the Finnish Parliament requires a two-thirds majority, so the votes of the governing parties alone are not enough to implement the proposal, and therefore they need the support of the opposition National Coalition Party (NCP).
Other opposition parties plan to vote against the package, while the leadership of the national party has given MEPs the free power to vote as they wish. The party is known to have both supporters and opponents of the package.
Source: The Nordic Page