The European Parliament is set to vote on the EU’s deportation bill on Wednesday (17 June) after passing through at the committee level earlier this week.
The parliament’s version of the bill was broadly drafted by a right-wing faction of plenary, effectively sidelining the lead MEP on the file, Dutch Renew Europe MEP Malik Azmani.
Yet at a plenary debate in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Azmani still attempted to frame the fractured internal negotiations as harmonious.
“I’m particularly grateful for the constructive cooperation that has characterised these negotiations,” he told the plenary, adding that he now stands fully behind the latest text.
The European People’s Party (EPP) under the French leadership of François-Xavier Bellamy had marginalised Azmani in early March after presenting an alternative text on the bill that was backed by the hard right.
