The government will be giving the opposition reasonable time to study a draft of the country's presentation document to the Partnership for Peace council (PfP) highlighting a number of programmes the country would be interested in taking part in.
Taking up a suggestion by Labour MP George Vella, Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg told the European and Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday that the government would also be willing to consult the opposition on the country's individual programme which would be based on the presentation document.
The minister had given the committee a presentation as to why the government had decided to reactivate its membership in the PfP. He stressed that membership in the PfP was not membership in Nato, in which Malta was not interested and which was being made clear in a document the country was presenting Nato. Moreover, membership of the PfP would not dampen the country's neutrality.
Dr Vella pointed out that the reactivation of Malta's membership in the PfP had come out of the blue without any electoral promises of the sort being made. Such things were not done in this way especially when the matter had been of a politically controversial nature.
He said that the opposition acknowledged that the situation now was not what it had been in 1995 when Malta had first joined. Different arguments could perhaps be made. However, the opposition and the people did not have time to enter into such a debate which could have led to the people being convinced that this was a matter of interest to the country avoiding political controversy.
He said that he was still not convinced that membership in the PfP was not membership in a military alliance and that in joining the PfP Malta was not breaching its Constitution. He clarified that in making this argument he was not saying that Malta should or should not have reactivated its membership but he still had to be convinced legally that membership in the PfP was in line with the country's Constitution.
Dr Vella said that the government had not ignored just the opposition but also Parliament. He asked for the government to give the opposition time to discuss the government's draft presentation. He said that levels of agreement could be found through debate, certain legal difficulties could be cleared and, if agreement was not found, democracy would at least have been given time to operate.
Labour MP Leo Brincat also criticised the government for promising a new style of government but not consulting the opposition on this and other issues.
He pointed out that, following its electoral defeat, Labour would be reconsidering all its policies including membership in the PfP.
Committee chairman Michael Frendo encouraged the minister to have Malta participating in peace operations since this would help the country remain relevant internationally.
Dr Borg said that the government was willing to give the opposition reasonable time to discuss the draft document. Presenting the committee with a draft document before taking this to the Partnership council, he said, was an indication that the government did not want to do anything which might lead one to suspect that it had a hidden agenda.