Six seats desire in euro parliament 'greedy'

Andrew Duff, a Liberal member of the European parliament, said yesterday that demanding a threshold of six MEPs was greedy and he believed his opinion to be broadly shared across the institution.

Malta had been allocated five seats in the European parliament but it is now calling for its allocation to be increased to six.

Speaking to journalists at an EP/EU seminar in Brussels Mr Duff said he believed the threshold should be five and the maximum 95.

"I think six is greedy. With small countries having a minimum of six, the size of the parliament will grow and poor little Malta will be more insignificant, size-wise...

"If you think Britain is on the side of Malta, you have another thing coming," Mr Duff said.

Asked if his opinion represented that of the Liberal Group, Mr Duff said he did not know his group's position about the matter but he believed the opinion that six was much too high to be broadly shared across the parliament.

"If you don't believe me, speak to other MEPs," he said.