← Votes·2025-07-10

Urgent need to protect religious minorities in Syria following the recent terrorist attack on Mar Elias Church in Damascus

Foreign Affairs75%★

Confidence: 75%

Assigned by: rule-based classifier

Evidence:

title contains non-EU country "syria"

Reviewed: yes

Methodology: topic-rules-v0.1

View all votes on Foreign Affairs →

Vote ID 178241Source: official EP roll-call records

Official roll-call results (EP minutes) ↗

/ 100

Importance Score

Medium importance

Why this vote stands out:

✓Procedural or paragraph vote
✓Strong political group division
✓Some national delegation divergence
✓Very close result
✓High participation
✓Many MEPs voted against their group

Show full breakdown

Topic importance+8 / 15

Turnout+5 / 5

Vote type+3 / 25

Close vote+12 / 15

Legislative+0 / 15

Rebel votes+7 / 10

Group division+12 / 15

Country division+10 / 15

Methodology: importance-v0.1 · The Importance Score is a prioritisation indicator. It does not judge whether a vote is good or bad.

What was this vote about?

This vote concerned “Urgent need to protect religious minorities in Syria following the recent terrorist attack on Mar Elias Church in Damascus”. S&D, Renew, Greens-EFA and Left voted mostly in favour, while EPP, NI and ESN voted mostly against. ECR and PfE mostly abstained. The motion was adopted by a narrow margin (256 for, 249 against, 135 abstentions).

Automated summary generated from official vote metadata and observed voting patterns. Not a legal interpretation.

Why it matters

This is a procedural vote — it concerns how Parliament organises its work rather than a substantive policy decision. It is generally of lower public-interest weight, though procedural votes can still signal political alignments. The outcome was close, which makes individual choices and absences especially consequential.

Result analysis

For

256

Against

249

Abstain

135

Margin of victory

7 votes

Turnout (cast)

640

Absent

Participation rate

88.9%

⚠️This was a close vote — the margin was small relative to the votes cast.

Close vote analysis

The margin was 7 votes. 80 MEPs did not vote.

Could absences have changed the outcome? The number of absent MEPs (80) was larger than the 7-vote margin, so absences were numerically significant.

Groups whose absences exceeded the margin

S&Dhad 18 absent MEPs (margin was 7)
PfEhad 15 absent MEPs (margin was 7)
Renewhad 12 absent MEPs (margin was 7)
EPPhad 10 absent MEPs (margin was 7)
Lefthad 10 absent MEPs (margin was 7)

Countries whose absences exceeded the margin

Hungary (13 absent)Romania (9 absent)France (8 absent)Germany (8 absent)

Absences larger than the margin are numerically significant but do NOT imply the outcome would have changed. That would require modelling how each absent member would have voted, which this analysis does not do.

By political group

EPP185 MEPs

For 1Against 171Abstain 3Absent 10

S&D135 MEPs

For 116Against 1Abstain 0Absent 18

ECR82 MEPs

For 6Against 7Abstain 63Absent 6

Renew79 MEPs

For 67Against 0Abstain 0Absent 12

PfE81 MEPs

For 0Against 16Abstain 50Absent 15

Greens/EFA53 MEPs

For 49Against 0Abstain 3Absent 1

The Left45 MEPs

For 13Against 11Abstain 11Absent 10

NI29 MEPs

For 4Against 18Abstain 3Absent 4

ESN27 MEPs

For 0Against 23Abstain 2Absent 2

Country angle

Most in favour

France35
Netherlands16
Sweden12
Belgium10
Portugal10

Most against

Germany48
Spain27
Poland24
Romania11
Bulgaria10

Divided delegations

Austria
Belgium
Croatia
Czech Republic
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Latvia

Full breakdown by all countries

Austria20 MEPs

For 9Against 5Abstain 5Absent 1

Belgium22 MEPs

For 10Against 7Abstain 2Absent 3

Bulgaria17 MEPs

For 5Against 10Abstain 1Absent 1

Croatia12 MEPs

For 5Against 6Abstain 1Absent 0

Cyprus6 MEPs

For 0Against 2Abstain 2Absent 2

Czech Republic21 MEPs

For 5Against 5Abstain 8Absent 3

Denmark15 MEPs

For 9Against 2Abstain 1Absent 3

Estonia7 MEPs

For 4Against 2Abstain 1Absent 0

Finland15 MEPs

For 9Against 4Abstain 0Absent 2

France82 MEPs

For 35Against 11Abstain 28Absent 8

Germany96 MEPs

For 36Against 48Abstain 4Absent 8

Greece21 MEPs

For 3Against 10Abstain 3Absent 5

Hungary21 MEPs

For 1Against 7Abstain 0Absent 13

Ireland14 MEPs

For 6Against 4Abstain 3Absent 1

Italy76 MEPs

For 22Against 17Abstain 31Absent 6

Latvia9 MEPs

For 2Against 3Abstain 2Absent 2

Lithuania11 MEPs

For 5Against 3Abstain 3Absent 0

Luxembourg6 MEPs

For 4Against 2Abstain 0Absent 0

Malta6 MEPs

For 3Against 2Abstain 0Absent 1

Netherlands31 MEPs

For 16Against 12Abstain 1Absent 2

Poland53 MEPs

For 5Against 24Abstain 21Absent 3

Portugal21 MEPs

For 10Against 8Abstain 3Absent 0

Romania33 MEPs

For 9Against 11Abstain 4Absent 9

Slovakia15 MEPs

For 6Against 8Abstain 0Absent 1

Slovenia9 MEPs

For 4Against 4Abstain 0Absent 1

Spain60 MEPs

For 21Against 27Abstain 8Absent 4

Sweden21 MEPs

For 12Against 5Abstain 3Absent 1

Individual MEP positions

Loading individual positions…