Lithuanian MEP Petras Gražulis voted on Tuesday against a 35-billion-euro loan to Ukraine, which will be covered by profits from Russia’s frozen assets in the West.
Representatives of the European Parliament confirmed this to the 15min.lt news website.
According to the website, Lithuanian MEPs Virginijus Sinkevičius and Waldemar Tomaszewski did not take part in the vote, while Vytenis Andriukaitis, Petras Auštrevičius, Vilija Blinkevičiūtė, Rasa Juknevičienė, Andrius Kubilius, Paulius Saudargas, Aurelijus Veryga, and Dainius Žalimas voted in favour.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament approved new macro-financial assistance aimed at helping Ukraine resist Russian aggression, with 518 votes in favour, 56 against, and 61 abstentions.
The loan is part of a package agreed by the G7 last June which will provide Ukraine with around 45 billion euros in financial support.
Under the newly created cooperation mechanism for loans to Ukraine, Kyiv will be able to receive future revenues from the assets of the Russian Central Bank frozen in Western countries.
The new assistance will be available until the end of 2025.
‘Human error’
Gražulis himself later told media his vote was a mistake.
“This was a mistake. There were many amendments in the resolution, and I voted against the amendments because they included proposals to reduce funding,” Gražulis told the Elta news agency.
“I made a mistake, that vote takes a few seconds. It was a human error, the phone rang and in that time I did not hear what was being voted on. I thought it was a routine amendment, and at that time the vote was already in favour of the whole project,” he stressed.
However, as can be seen in the video of the EP plenary session, the vote on the loan for Ukraine was the first item on the agenda, and no individual amendments were voted on before that.
The MEP said that he had asked for his vote to be changed.
“Since the system allows it, I corrected the vote. I have written to see if my correction has been accepted,” said Gražulis.
“MEPs have the right to inform about the correction of a vote and their intention to vote differently. They can do so before the start of the next session when the minutes of the previous session are formally approved. This statement does not change the final result of the vote,” the EP press office said in a comment to BNS on Wednesday.
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