Commission apologises

A "software problem" has been given as the reason why Maltese staff working with the European Commission were not invited to celebrations in Brussels marking Malta's entry into the euro. The Times reported on Tuesday that many Maltese working in Brussels with various EU institutions had complained about not being invited to join the activities that same day, organised by the European Commission and the Maltese Permanent Representation.

The Commission's activity was organised outside its Berlymont headquarters and was followed by a separate activity organised at Dar Malta by the Maltese Permanent Representation.

The following day, the Commission admitted its mistake and apologised to all the Maltese involved.

In an e-mail sent to all the Maltese members of staff at the Commission, a copy of which was seen by The Times, Stefan Appel, from the Commission, said that, although the Commission's intention was to invite all the Maltese staff, "there was a software problem when merging the e-mail addresses into mailing lists.

As a consequence of this technical problem, most Maltese staff of the Commission erroneously did not receive any invitation while several other people on the invitation list received more than one invite".

Mr Appel wrote that the non-invitation of the Maltese staff, "for which we sincerely apologise", was very regrettable and unfortunate.

As reported by The Times, Mr Appel also confirmed in his e-mail that many Maltese did not take the issue lightly.

"We are also very touched by some emotional, even hostile responses we received over the last 36 hours," the Commission official remarked.

Maltese EU officials who received the e-mail said that, although this explanation was appropriate, it was still difficult to understand how this technical error was only restricted to Maltese staff.

"The activity was full of Cypriots and they had all received invitations from the same Commission system," a Maltese official working at the Commission remarked.

Media Consulta, a German marketing agency, organised the Commission's activity on its behalf.

According to Mr Appel, "the agency was inter alia responsible for the invitation management".

The officials said their complaints also referred to the activity organised by the Maltese Permanent Representation in Brussels to which they were not invited either.