France, Spain block Malta's prospects to head CEB

THE prospects of Malta taking over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe Bank (CEB) were dashed on Friday when during a final vote in Strasbourg, Malta's candidate, Ambassador Joseph Licari, was defeated by just one vote.

The complicated process required the winning candidate to obtain the support of a majority of the bank's 38 member states representing two-thirds of the bank's share capital. This system worked against Malta, as despite obtaining the backing of many countries, it lacked the support of some key players, most notably France and Spain.

Germany, Italy and France each have 16.7 per cent of the shares and Spain 10.9 per cent. Other countries have much lower shareholdings, with Malta being one of the smallest shareholders with less than 0.2 per cent.

The whole election process over this prestigious post stretched over eight months and the first seven rounds of voting led to a stalemate last September. A new process was called and Malta, Cyprus, Switzerland and Denmark presented candidates. Several days before last Friday's election, Germany announced it would back the Maltese candidate, who already had the support of many small and medium-sized member states.

In the first two rounds of last Friday's election, Italy, France and Spain backed the Cypriot candidate, but Italy switched its vote to Malta after Foreign Minister Michael Frendo intervened at the highest level in Rome. At the fourth round, France and Spain switched their support to the Danish candidate to block Ambassador Licari.

In the fifth ballot, the Danish candidate obtained the support of 19 member states and 55 per cent of the share capital, compared to 18 member states and 45 per cent of the share capital for Ambassador Licari, who immediately conceded defeat.

Sources close to the Council of Europe attributed Malta's narrow defeat to France.

In fact, even before the election, it was an open secret that France's ambassador to the Council of Europe lobbied against Dr Licari and backed successively the Turkish, Cypriot and finally the Danish candidate.

On the other hand, Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Croatia, San Marino and Slovakia were among those which were constantly on Malta's side.

The CEB concentrates on projects with a social purpose and has recently given particular attention to the transition countries of central, eastern and southeastern countries. Its mandate was confirmed and widened by the third Council of Europe summit held in Warsaw last May.