MLP's stand on referendum to be taken after date is announced

The Labour Party's stand on the EU membership referendum would be taken at a party general conference to be held after the date of the referendum was announced, Labour leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

Dr Sant was reacting to an editorial in yesterday's The Sunday Times which asked why Dr Sant and his party were insisting that they would ignore the referendum's outcome and that only a general election would decide the issue of EU membership

Speaking in Cospicua, the Labour leader said a referendum was a tool in the hands of the government and the people's real choice was made in an election, at which the people's choice was based on the programmes presented by the parties.

Answering questions put in the editorial, Dr Sant said the circumstances in which the other candidate countries were in today were different to Malta's.

All except Cyprus had been part of the Soviet bloc and needed to join the EU to ensure they would never again go through what they had experienced following the war.

These countries also had a strong agricultural sector and believed that by applying EU rules they would be better off. EU agricultural rules had now changed and they would not be doing so well.

Cyprus, on the other hand, was a divided country and the Greek side had been wanting to unite with Greece for years and that was why it was seeking membership.

Malta had to see what suited it as a small country. No other applicant state had a tourism sector as important as Malta's, with 35 per cent of the country's economy depending on it.

Another point made in The Sunday Times was that if Malta were to remain out of the EU, the country would be denied a historic opportunity out of pique. But it was the prime minister who was resorting to pique because he could not accept the fact that there were arguments both for and against accession.

He was also asked what guarantee did he have that the partnership his party was promoting could be implemented. Dr Sant said the German secretary of state and the French Minister on EU affairs had both said that the EU would be ready to work on the option being proposed by the MLP when the country had a democratically elected Labour government.

At the same time, at the Convention on the Future of Europe, the idea of a partnership for countries which did not want to become members, or for whom membership was not suitable, was moving ahead.

Dr Sant said that he himself had some questions to put to the editor of The Sunday Times. Did he understand the difference between Malta and the other candidate countries? And what did he think of the way the Irish were treated when they were faced with another referendum after the first one was lost?

Dr Sant said he knew The Sunday Times editor Laurence Grech as a person who was capable of engaging in dialogue but he now needed to do so also on EU matters. This, he said, called for a genuine effort by Mr Grech.

Dr Sant referred to the ombudsman's report on promotions in the Armed Forces and the opinion piece about this report by Martin Scicluna in The Times of Saturday.

The Labour leader said Mr Scicluna did not politically agree with the MLP but he was a serious person who had worked both under Labour and the PN.

In his piece, Mr Scicluna wrote that what the ombudsman was recommending had been put in place in August 1997 following a directive from Castille.

Dr Sant said a new Labour government would go into partnership with all sectors of Maltese society and with all countries which would want to work with Malta. In this way, it would face the country's economic crisis and create new employment opportunities.

He said that during his visits to Russia and the US, new projects and initiatives for the country were discussed.

Tomorrow, Dr Sant said, he would be leaving Malta for Australia, where he would be meeting the Maltese community and people in business.

Dr Sant also referred to the Cottonera yacht marina project. Part of the land which had been given out to the consortium was sold to the casino company.

A new Labour government, he said, would publish the contract and conditions under which the land was transferred so that everyone would know how matters stood. He said there was clear evidence that the consortium which was supposed to be developing the yacht marina had big financial problems.