3 ms·

I don't know what the exact thing was that was voted on, but sometimes it can get complicated. Let's assume that there is a vote coming on road tolls. A member

I don't know what the exact thing was that was voted on, but sometimes it can get complicated. Let's assume that there is a vote coming on road tolls. A member first proposes that "Let's implement road tolls". Then government officials give their response to that "Let's not implement road tolls." Then the speaker selects the governments response as the base for voting. Now if a member is for road tolls and votes "YES", that member is then voting against road tolls. Again, I don't know how the process went and what was actually voted on. I'm just saying that sometimes is might be somewhat complicated to understand what is the thing that is actually voted. Sure, this should be straightforward for any experienced politician, but occasionally newcomers make mistakes like these.

C1sc0cat 8y ago
No its the first job of any representative to know what the substantive motion is and any consequentials . Also any consequentials should be published along with the motions on the order paper / agenda.
M4v3R 8y ago
I watched the voting live and with my very limited knowledge of how the European Parliment works I was able to discern what was voted on and when. There were essentially two votes on this issue. First (the one that was lost by only 5 votes) was to vote on amending the directive (to potentially remove article 13 from it) and after that, they proceeded to vote on the whole directive. In my opinion in this case there was enough time for MEPs to make a decision and press one of three buttons in front of them. Also, remember that this was a big, widely discussed issue and it's not something that took them by surprise. The order of what will be voted when was published before the session started and everyone could prepare themselves for it.