Iva Movement against proposed format for schedule of EU programmes

Iva Movement spokesman Joanna Drake yesterday said former prime minister Dom Mintoff had made it clear that he would "never say never" to the European Union during the group's meeting with him last week.

Though she refrained from giving details about the meeting, Ms Drake told The Times it was evident that Mr Mintoff would keep his options open.

Four years after retiring from politics, Mr Mintoff's name is again being bandied about, after Campaign for National Independence chairman Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici asked him to go to Ireland last weekend to campaign against Irish ratification of the Nice Treaty.

Mr Mintoff chose not to go.

Dr Drake insisted that it was Mr Mintoff who had requested the meeting with the pro-EU lobby at his Tarxien residence on August 14.

"We meet with anyone and so we agreed bona fide to hold a meeting with him. It was an exchange of ideas on the negotiations, and on the island's future."

Members of the movement yesterday called a news conference in front of the Broadcasting Authority in Hamrun to protest against the proposed format for a new schedule of programmes on Malta and the EU, to be aired from mid-September.

The movement argued that the new format would foment partisanship and political divide on a national scale, and would relegate Iva and other interest groups to the backbench of the EU debate.

The BA, the movement said, was proposing to first air a documentary followed by a discussion between a panel of guests.

Dr Drake said two sides would be pitted against each other, for example the Nationalist Party against the Labour Party, the Iva Movement against CNI, and so on.

"This is an unfair segregation when one considers that membership of the EU is a national issue and not one reserved solely for political parties," she said.

As an interest group, the movement is insisting that it has a right to voice its opinion in all the planned 12 programmes, since they will all be discussing subjects which influence the citizens' lives.

Dr Drake maintained that the BA had a duty to promote wide discussion on subjects of national interest, and yet, with its proposal, it was doing the opposite.

"This decision gives room for an arbitrary and unjust exclusion of a popular and referendum movement," Dr Drake said.

The movement held a meeting with BA chief executive Kevin Aquilina last week in connection with the new schedule.

Yesterday it presented a letter to Mr Aquilina calling for another meeting.