MEPs back euro entry by big margin

The European Parliament yesterday officially endorsed Malta's entry into the eurozone with overwhelming support for a report approving the European Commission's positive recommendation issued last May.

Parliament's report, penned by German MEP Werner Lengen, was approved with 610 votes in favour, 12 against and 74 abstentions. All five Maltese MEPs from across the political divide voted in favour of Malta adopting the euro as from next January.

During yesterday's plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament also adopted a similar report on the entry of Cyprus, albeit with a smaller majority.

Yesterday's vote will now be followed by a possible political agreement by EU leaders at their mid-year summit in Brussels today. According to the summit's agenda circulated yesterday, Malta's euro adoption will be debated during the first session of the Council to be held tonight. Malta will be represented by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.

During yesterday's debate, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joachim Almunia said that Malta had come a long way and had managed to put its finances in order during the past three years since its accession into the EU.

He reiterated that Malta has acquired a sound and sustainable level of public finances and shrugged off comments made by some MEPs casting doubts about the reliability of the data presented by the two new countries joining the eurozone. The debate was almost entirely dominated by MEPs criticising the Commission over the procedure used in the approval of the eurozone enlargement. They complained that the European Parliament was again not given much time to prepare its opinion.

To avoid this happening in future, MEPs adopted a separate resolution urging the Commission and Council to come to a formal inter-institutional agreement with Parliament with a view to ensuring MEPs have at least two months to consider proposals to enlarge the euro area.

Following the expected nod from the European Council this evening, the next and final procedural step will be the approval by the Economic and Finance Council of the central parity convergence rate. This is scheduled for July 10.