2 Written explanations of Josep-Maria TERRICABRAS

. – I voted against the resolution of 31 January 2019 on the situation in Venezuela, which recognises Mr Guaidó as the legitimate interim President of Venezuela. I decided to vote against this resolution because my position was fully covered by the resolution tabled by my own group –Greens/EFA – in which there is no unilateral recognition of Mr Guaidó as President of Venezuela, but instead there is a condemnation of the escalation of violence in Venezuela, as well as an honest call on all sides to enter into an inclusive and credible dialogue aimed at finding a long-term and lasting solution.

. – We voted against the EU Citizenship Report 2017. This report includes a paragraph (Recital G) that is completely unacceptable. Surprisingly enough, the EPP had collected 77 signatures to table an amendment to supress this paragraph, including 6 members of the Partido Popular who ended up withdrawing their signatures. However, by virtue of Rule 169(5) that establishes that where an amendment is withdrawn by its author it shall fall unless it is immediately taken over by another Member, 7 other MEPs stamped their signatures in support of the amendment and it was finally put to vote in plenary. The amendment fell by an extremely narrow margin (256 in favour vs. 285 against the deletion of that very paragraph, with 102 abstentions) and thus, Recital G remained in the final text of the resolution, which forced our vote against the whole report. We strongly deplore the wording and content of this paragraph. Changes in the borders of a Member State can happen as a result of a democratic exercise, when a majority of citizens express their will in a peaceful democratic mandate. Democracy is, after all, one of the values enshrined in Article 2 of the TEU.