Irate MEP cuts short speech in protest

Labour MEP Joseph Muscat refused to continue addressing the European Parliament after he was informed no interpreters were present to translate his speech from the Maltese language.

Mr Muscat had to cut short his address on money laundering on Wednesday when after a few sentences into his speech the presiding chairman informed him he couldn't continue his speech in Maltese as no interpreters were available.

Mr Muscat replied saying the situation was no longer tolerable, adding that as a sign of protest he would not continue speaking.

Mr Muscat told Janez Onyazkiewicz, vice president of the European Parliament, that his Maltese colleagues were already tolerating a situation where no Maltese translation was available during the group and committee meetings. However, such a thing should not happen in plenary sessions. The parliamentary authorities, he added, had informed the MEPs that Maltese translations would always be available during such sessions.

An infuriated Mr Muscat insisted that Maltese was as much an official EU language as the other 19 languages and there was no excuse to keep excluding Maltese language services. The chairman of the plenary session apologised to Mr Muscat and promised he would do his utmost so that the situation will not be repeated.

Speaking to The Times following the incident, Mr Muscat said that although he could have easily opted to continue his speech in English, he refused to do so in order to stress his point that there was a limit to the patience shown by the Maltese MEPs. He insisted it was the responsibility of the European Parliament to assure that Maltese MEPs are given the same treatment as the other members and that was why he reacted strongly to what happened.

"This situation is not acceptable anymore. We either have our language as an official one with all its full rights or we have only an official language on paper. We will be taking up this issue with the EP administrative authorities. This is not going to stop here. Time is up."

Following the incident, Mr Muscat, together with MEP Louis Grech, formally wrote to the European Parliament informing them about the current situation and demanding that the issue be solved without further delay.

In their letter to the secretary general of the EP, Julian Priestly, the two MEPs also referred to a similar situation occurring just the week before in Strasbourg where Mr Grech had to prepare his speech in English after being informed that Maltese language interpretation was not available because he would be speaking late, at 9.30 p.m. The two MEPs said that as long as there is no permanent solution to this problem due to lack of staff, the Maltese MEPs should at least be assured that interpretation services will be available during the plenary sessions.