MLP reports find no conflict between EU, Malta constitutions

The internal debate within the Malta Labour Party as to what stand to take on the EU Constitutional Treaty will be based on the outcome of the 2003 general election when the Maltese voted for EU membership, Labour leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

Dr Sant recalled that although the MLP would have preferred a partnership agreement with the EU it had at the time made itself clear it would abide by the result of the general election.

The party has kept its word and will be doing its best to make the most of the benefits of EU membership and to mitigate the adverse effects of membership, he added.

Speaking at party headquarters in Hamrun, Dr Sant said that knowing full well that practically no one had read the voluminous treaty - "I have read it, for my sins," he quipped - the MLP had commissioned three reports to assist delegates and other party officials to understand better what the treaty was about.

In sharp contrast with what happened in previous occasions when reports it commissioned where released, the party has this time decided to name the compilers of the three studies.

The report on the legal aspect was put together by Joe Brincat and Pawlu Lia, both lawyers. Former Foreign Affairs Minister and ex-party deputy leader George Vella drew up the report on the political facet of the treaty and the overview of how the debate has been flowing in the rest of the EU member states was made by Edward Zammit Lewis, a lawyer.

Dr Brincat and Dr Vella are Labour MPs; Dr Lia is one of the legal advisers to the party and Dr Zammit Lewis is an MLP candidate.

Fielding questions by the press on whether the treaty would impinge on Malta's neutrality, sovereignty and identity, Dr Sant said that going by the report on the legal aspect of the treaty this does not seem to be the case.

"I do not see any conflict between Malta's constitution and the EU Constitutional Treaty," Dr Sant noted stressing the fact that the EU had come up with a treaty and not a constitution.

"This is a diplomatic treaty between the EU member states. All the delegates and other party officials will be given a copy of these reports so that the party will have an open debate where everyone will have the chance to express one's views.

"Although the leadership (that is Dr Sant and the two deputy leaders Charles Mangion and Michael Falzon) have their own personal opinion on the treaty, we prefer not to divulge our opinion in order not to influence the debate.

"We want the debate to be calm and without anyone becoming emotional."

Asked how he looked on the ideas expressed by former MLP leader and Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, who opposes the treaty, Dr Sant said that as a party delegate Dr Mifsud Bonnici will have the chance to express his views.

He highlighted the fact, however, that the gist and conclusions reached in the three reports were not in line with the ideas that Dr Mifsud Bonnici harbours.

The general feeling that the constitutional treaty would not conflict that much with Malta's own Constitution is supported by the conclusions reached by both Dr Vella on the political front and by Dr Brincat and Dr Lia on the legal aspects of the treaty.

This is what Dr Vella had to say:

"A negative vote (on the treaty) by the Labour side would cast new doubts on the sincerity and seriousness of the Labour Party that, following the result of the last general election, declared its readiness to abide by the decision of the Maltese electorate. As the leader of the party said during the debate in Parliament on the Treaty of Adhesion: 'In the years ahead of us let us find ways how to continue building on what has been achieved and not how to dismantle'.

"Such action (a negative vote), even if legally justified, would expose us to the outside world as being in the same boat with those extremist European parties that are not hiding the fact that they are absolutely against the concept of the European Union, the countries' membership of the Union and against the constitutional treaty itself.

"Small parties and movements like these enjoy their space in big countries. The Labour Party is the biggest political force in our country and, in the light of what we have been through during recent years, there is no way of quantifying the effects such a negative decision on its part would have on its credibility and that of our country's political system.

"I am not saying that, for these reasons, the Labour Party should automatically vote in favour of the constitutional treaty".

In their report, Dr Brincat and Dr Lia argued thus: "As long as the Maltese government does not signify its intention of joining the permanent structured cooperation, as envisaged by the following articles of the EU Constitution, there is no violation of our Constitution, arising simply from the acceptance of that Constitution".

The permanent structured cooperation deals with military capabilities and joint military efforts with other EU member states.