Proposals to change EU electoral laws are now to be put forward so that members can ask someone else to vote for them during the three months before and six months after the birth of the child.
Unlike in the Riksdag, it is not otherwise possible to be temporarily replaced in the EU Parliament during parental leave. Pregnant and newly-born members have therefore risked missing important votes.
Thursday's decision was taken by a strong majority: 605 votes to 30. On the opposing side were, among others, the German far-right AFD, whose member Irmhild Bossdorf believed that the others should be ashamed and that the proposal deprives female members of their free choice.
However, it was emphatically dismissed by Speaker Roberta Metsola.
"I want to remind you that this is voluntary. We are not forcing you to do anything," Metsola said.
However, men who are on parental leave or have just had a child are not covered, despite attempts by the Liberals, the Greens and the Left.
“Our electoral law is, literally speaking, from another century,” said Franco-Italian liberal Sandro Gozi in Brussels.
