The European Parliaments vote on a controversial reform of copyright rules may have gone differently if several lawmakers had not pressed a wrong button when deciding how the vote should proceed, according to a corrected record.
Lawmakers were asked on Tuesday to vote on whether they wanted to have one round of voting on the entire reform, or votes on each of the amendments individually. A narrow majority voted in favor of the single vote and the copyright reform as a whole was approved.
But in the following hours, a number of lawmakers said they had pressed the wrong button during the initial vote. A corrected record of the vote shows that, without the errors, the majority for the initial vote would have switched sides. The corrections are strictly for Parliaments records and do not affect the outcome of the vote.
Opponents of the reform voiced dismay at the errors, which some argued robbed them of a chance to reject the reforms controversial Articles 11 and 13.
“A very inconvenient truth about the #copyright vote: after corrections of votes (allowed for the record but without changing the outcome of the vote) there would have been a majority for voting for or against 11&13. History is a dime on its side,” tweeted Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the D66 party who voted against the reform.
However, a Parliament official voiced skepticism about the true nature of the errors.
“I strongly fear some “errors” where volontari (sic) and correction of vote best way out for some MEPs under pressure,” tweeted UmbertoRead More – Source
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