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GSP Plus: Four votes added to Lanka’s 436
View(s):Sri Lanka has earned four more votes in the European Parliament against a motion to deprive it of the GSP+ concession after four Members of the European Parliament (MEP) realised they had polled wrong.
A few hours after the motion was defeated on April 27, Sri Lanka’s EU Ambassador Rodney Perera made a round of calls to MEPs based on the voting sheet with the intention of double-checking their intentions. As a result, four MEPs changed their decision on account of misinterpreting the objective of the vote–that is, mistakenly thinking that by voting “positive”, they were supporting Sri Lanka.
The count against the motion now stands at a revised 440 (compared with 436 recorded on April 27) while 115 have voted for the motion (compared with 119) while 22 abstained. An absolute majority of 376 votes is needed for an “objection motion”– such as was filed against Sri Lanka’s GSP+ bid by a section of MEPs–to be carried.
All four MEPs that changed their vote are from the Centre Right — two Conservatives, one Liberal and one from the largest group, the European People’s Party.