- Before the vote

  Gerard Batten (IND/DEM). – Mr President, on a point of order, I would like to invoke Rule 35 with reference to this vote. Under Rule 35(1), for all Commission proposals of a legislative nature, the committee responsible shall verify the legal basis. Rule 35(4) says that the committee should have disputed the validity of the proceedings regarding the period of reflection and the ratification process. This is for two reasons. First of all, under the EU’s own rules, any Member State rejecting the Constitutional Treaty has right of veto, and therefore it should be dead. My second point – and the most important point to me – is that the European Constitution is unconstitutional in terms of the British Constitution in relation to Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and various other acts of ...

  President. – Mr Batten, I must cut you off there, because you are starting from a false premise: this is not a text of a legislative nature.

(Applause and protests)

– After the vote on the second part of Amendment 2

  Brian Crowley (UEN). – Mr President, on a point of order, may I just point out that the interpretation was slightly behind you with regard to taking that vote. When you declared the vote open on the first vote, we were voting on the second part, because that was what the interpreter told us before you corrected yourself. You then closed the vote before we had an opportunity to correct our own votes. So, if possible, that vote should be dealt with again.

(Applause)

  Dirk Sterckx (ALDE). – (NL) Mr President, Mr Crowley has asked to retake the vote on the second section of Amendment 2. If you look at the numbers on your counting device, there is difference of 100 people who did not vote between part 1 and part 2. There was a total of approximately 630 votes for the first part, and only 545 for the second. Every now and again, because the electronic vote closes far too quickly, people do not get the chance, if they listen to the interpretation, to respond. I would ask you to allow a little more time for this.

(Applause)

  President. – The vote has taken place and we must now continue, but I certainly take note of what you have said. The fact remains that we will not restart the vote, because we never do that here.

(Protests)

That concludes voting time.