Transfer of voting rights during pregnancy and after birth

The EU Parliament has approved a proposal that will allow MEPs to transfer their voting rights to trusted colleagues during pregnancy and after birth. The new regulation for mothers should take effect three months before and six months after the birth. This change promotes the European Parliament's diversity and equal opportunities objectives and ensures that motherhood does not affect parliamentary participation or limit the democratic representation of citizens. The project was initiated by Parliament Speaker Metsola. If the EU states also approve the new regulation, this will represent the first exception to personal voting in the EU Parliament. Attention: The voting results shown on the right only reflect the voting behavior of the 96 German EU MPs and not that of all 720 EU MPs. Overall, the proposal was approved with 605 votes in favour, 30 against and five abstentions. Of the German MEPs, 71 voted for and twelve against. There were no abstentions. Addendum from April 29, 2026: The EU Parliament finally approved the revision of the EU electoral act with 616 votes in favor, 24 against, and eight abstentions. This means that female representatives should be able to transfer their voting rights in the future.

Vote breakdown