MEPs meet Gonzi

The five newly-elected members of the European Parliament yesterday had their first official meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

Dr Gonzi congratulated the MEPs - Joseph Muscat, John Attard Montalto and Louis Grech for the Labour Party and Simon Busuttil and David Casa for the Nationalist Party - and hoped that their work in the next five years would be in the interest of the country.

The MEPs, he said, were at the beginning of an experience which had to be developed in the coming months. They had to link their work to that of the government and Parliament in Malta.

Dr Busuttil said the people expected the five MEPs to work together. The first agreement they had to reach, he said, was on how they should be represented in the committees. There were 20 committees in the EU and Malta could be represented in a maximum of 10.

Dr Attard Montalto said that prior to being representatives of the PN and the MLP, the MEPs were all Maltese and they were above all representatives of their country.