Mifsud Bonnici to push on with motion regardless

Former Labour prime minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici was yesterday adamant that he would not withdraw his motion on the EU, irrespective of the outcome of a Labour Party motion which runs counter to his.

The party motion, which will be discussed first, asks delegates to approve the MLP's proposed position on the EU. This is laid out in a document approved by the national executive last month, which concludes that Malta should stay in the EU in the interest of political and economic stability.

Discussion on this motion started yesterday at the Labour Party's Conference Ghall-gid tal-Maltin u l-Ghawdxin (for the good of Maltese and Gozitans) which will continue today and on Sunday.

The conference agreed that a secret vote would be taken on the motion.

Once the vote has been taken, discussion will start on Dr Mifsud Bonnici's motion, and he was convinced that the outcome of the first would be known before his own motion came to the second, also secret, vote.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici's motion says that the conference should encourage the party in opposition and in government to work to change the agreement made between the Nationalist government and the EU, and to reach an agreement which would not be a disadvantage to the Maltese.

However, when asked by The Times, he said that he had no intention of withdrawing his motion, even if the first motion won wide support.

The conference had other things to discuss, many related to the party's new position on the EU.

A new chapter regulates the nominations and choice of the party's candidates for European Parliament elections.

It says that the party should not have more than eight candidates. There was considerable discussion on whether the party should limit the number of candidates, but in the end, this was upheld after leader Alfred Sant argued that while a long list of candidates worked at council level, it would not at a national level.

Marie Louise Coleiro spoke about another point in the chapter related to the election of MEPs: that they would be liable to a fine of Lm5,000 should they not abide by a party decision and yet stay on as MEPs, "to make up for their use of the party's resources". Although the executive agreed to revise the wording of this clause, the fine will not be removed.

The conference also approved the reports by administration officials including a financial report which was audited by Ernst and Young.

As 125 people have indicated that they want to speak about the motions on EU membership, an extra session has been scheduled for Saturday morning, with the possibility of having others on Monday and Tuesday evening.

This was Jimmy Magro's last conference as secretary general, a post he has held for the past 12 years. He gave a brief and unemotional speech before being given a vote of thanks, to applause.

Another speaker was European Socialist general secretary Jan Marinus Wiersma, who reassured the delegates, to cheers, that Malta's neutrality would be respected. He appealed to the delegates to help the European Socialist parties shape the future of the EU, to exploit all that was positive and to fight all that was negative.

The general conference last night voted to elect the members of the party administration. Vote counting was still in progress by the time of going to press.

The nominations were as follows:

President: Emmanuel Cuschieri and Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi.

Vice President: Aaron Farrugia, Louis Gatt, Paul Pace, Joe Zammit, Desmond Zammit Marmara.

Secretary general: Chris Agius, Joe Chetcuti, Keith Grech, Alfred Grixti, Jason Micallef, Wenzu Mintoff, Lorna Vassallo.

Financial secretary: Tommy Dimech, Joe Meli, Raymond Sillato.

International secretary: Lawrence Ancilleri, Martin Debono, Michael Farrugia, Joe Mifsud.

Public relations secretary: Ray Azzopardi, Jesmar Baldacchino, Ancel Farrugia Migneco.

Educational secretary: Aleks Farrugia, Alfons Zammit.