Updated: Minister claims undue pressure in case of St John's CoCathedral extension - Muscat
Government denies claim, PN reacts
Photo: Joe Camenzuli
(Adds government's and PN's reactions)
Ministers who made serious claims about the now shelved project extending the museum of St John’s Co Cathedral should speak up in public, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat said yesterday.
This claim was denied by the government in a statement issued in the evening.
Addressing a dialogue meeting in Kalkara, Dr Muscat said that this sensitive and private meeting had been held on January 31 and one minister claimed that undue pressure was made in the case and another that EU funds were being obtained because of people who knew how to play the game.
The government was now making pressure to learn how the details of such a sensitive meeting had ended up at the Labour Party, Dr Muscat said.
Dr Muscat said he encouraged these two ministers to publicly say what they said during the meeting. This was what justice deserved.
But the government said in its statement that the choice of projects to benefit from EU funds was regulated by EU legislation and based on criteria agreed with the EU. Project approval was made by the project selection committee and the whole process was open to auditing by the European Commission, the Court of Auditors and Malta's Auditor General.
It was also not true that a minister had claimed that undue pressure had been made.
The government said the Opposition leader should not make St John's CoCathedral a political ball.
In a separate statement, the Nationalist Party said it was a shame that Dr Muscat was still sceptical about EU membership and its benefits.
Dr Muscat either did not know how the EU operated and how Malta was benefitting from EU funds or he wanted to deceive the people.
It was worrying that he tried to play a political game about how funds from the EU were acquired, especially since the people were benefitting from these funds through projects and investments that were or were being implemented, the PN said.
The Labour leader also dealt with the topic of illegal migration referring to his request for a Parliamentary debate following the arrival of 230 illegal immigrants this week.
He said that considering that the only month last year when the number of arrivals had surpassed this month’s was July, he had expected a statement on the matter from the Prime Minister.
But the Prime Minister said he could not understand Dr Muscat’s anger. This, Dr Muscat said, was because he was cut off from reality.
He said he, as leader of the Opposition, had the right to information and the Prime Minister could not expect the Opposition to keep its mouth shut because it was given a private presentation on the matter.
“I will not accept institutional omerta (Sicilian code of silence),” Dr Muscat said.
This issue, he said, was worrying families, people wanted to know what was happening and how the crisis was to be tackled and he could not stay with his mouth shut.
The government had been given enough time and should start answering questions.
Dr Muscat said that the immigrants had to be given human dignity and not fake solidarity.
He hoped that the Socialist MEPS would find the support of the Nationalist ones in the EU to work for the seat of a European Commission proposed asylum agency to be set up in Malta.
Such an agency was proposed in the Budget Committee by Labour MEP Louis Grech two years ago with the aim of taking over the screening of illegal immigrants to hasten repatriation.
Unfortunately, when the matter had come to a vote, the support of the Nationalist MEPs had been lacking.
The MLP parliamentary group, he said, will also be holding a special meeting at Marsa to discuss illegal immigration with the participation of the mayors of Marsa and Birzebbuga and MEP candidates. The meeting will help the party come up with its proposals on the matter prior to the forthcoming parliamentary debate.
Dr Muscat spoke on the new water and electricity rates saying that the aim of the Labour Party was not to have these reduced as from March but to have the new rates completely withdrawn.
A debate in Parliament on the matter was scheduled for March 10 and 11. The regulator was now lengthening the process to review the tariffs. Was this for a u-turn to come just before the debate?
Another this was better late than never what Labour wanted was for the bills to be withdrawn.
For these bills had been the result of a major drop in consumer confidence, creating a crisis.
The Labour leader referred to an agreement signed this week through which €10 million were being obtained from the EU for the AFM to buy four patrol boats which were to be built by an Australian company.
Although he had nothing against the Australian company, couldn’t the shipyard have bid for this contract?
Dr Muscat also referred to the waiting list for hernia operations which he said had gone up from 326 in 2002 to 729 this year, an increase of 123 per cent.
The Labour leader said that the MLP was embarking on a scheme through which citizens in localities having council elections this year would have the possibility of telling the party what they wished their council to do in their locality.
The party would also be embarking on real and proper consultation on education with teachers, parents and students, including young ones.
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Muscat.Pat
Feb 22nd 2009, 20:48
The truth is that Gonzi has no solutions to the problems faced by the islands.Since the PN suffers from a sense of inferioty complex when it comes to negotiate with foreign friends, we can NEVER expect any solutions. The 2008 deficit was caused by the "pjaciri" dished out BEFORE the last days of the last elections; St.John.s Co Cathedral project was stalled because of the rebellion by 5 Nationalist MP's including one minister; illegal passengers will continue invading our islands; its not an emergency yet! When will it be an emergency when we cannot control our own islands? God knows how many illegal immigrants ( not refugees, those should be given all they need) are already roaming the island. Perhaps, we should all say," Xi, taghmilx hoss, ghax tqajjem il-Gvern!"
Luke Gatt
Feb 22nd 2009, 20:23
TO ALL
SHUT UP AND LIVE
MILLIONS ARE LOSING THEIR HOMES WORLDWIDE MILLIONS ARE LOSING THEIR JOB WORLDWIDE AND YOU ARGUE ON IRRELEVANT THINGS
REMEMBER THAT GONZI AND MUSCAT AT THE END OF THE DAY STILL RECEIVE A PAY
DO NOT LET POLITICS TAKE OVER YOU LIFE IN THIS GAME YOU ARE THE ONES WHICH WILL LOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
J Farrugia
Feb 22nd 2009, 19:55
i'm sorry to say that THIS Opposition is a gonner .. Joseph Muscat is just a kid. let's start from the first one: Illegal immigration - is he and his party in favour or against illegal immigration? YES OR NO! The 4 new patrol boats should have gone to the dockyard. Is he naive? Doesn't he know how much it cost us the maltese taxpayer to have the Gozo boats built at Maltashipyards. The government would have gained a lot of money if he bought these boats from elsewhere. And if the AFM opted for these boats to be built at Malta Shipyards, they would have to wait until 2020 to get these four little wee boats. and the cost ? Phenomenal. So where does this put our new earthquaked leader fo the Labour Party? Is he speaking for the gallery or is he serious about these things? Shows of what mettle he's made of.
Jeff Inguanez
Feb 22nd 2009, 19:38
Joseph Muscat says he's progressive but hops on the xenophobic bandwagon.
Can he decide what he is?
J. Schembri
Feb 22nd 2009, 19:21
Can the LP delegates give us someone decent to run the opposition party?
So what if the PM put pressure on someone? Should I worry?And if someone knows how to go about milking the EU , isn't this on the plus side? And if the opposition wants to TALK on the illegal emigration issue in parliament , where will the solutions be. I would have appreciated if Joseph would have gone to his friend Gaddafi and convince him to really do something about the illegal immigrants coming to our shores from Libya.
Believing -working -succeeding is the logo in the background.I'm sorry but I can't see any of them in Joseph
V Fenech
Feb 22nd 2009, 18:47
Mr Martinelli
Do you pay extra money for what you don't consume in Toronto?? In Malta we were supposed not but your GonziPN has turned everything upside down rather than admitting his party's historical intentions to destroy anything started by Dom. And that is why Enemalta is in such a disaster now. AustinPN has also promised that they would not shif the inefficiency burden onto the consumers...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONKM2AT7w7s
You really don't know what is happening in our island. It is 'undue' pressure affecting negatively serious politicians such as Phillip Mifsud who has retired what he previosly said about the way farmers are granted EU subsidies. If what you're saying is true why are these ministers still kept unknown by the Dor Centruli???
If Lawrence Gonzi is courageous enough and not afraid of losing the trust of those around him, why don't he come out and deny that he's meeting George Pullicino to discuss ways of getting political advantage from the climate change issue?
Mind you, Labour has already come out with several credible proposals about immigration. Joseph Muscat needs to debate immediately about this problem because he needs to present the Opposition's ideas urgently before the problems continue to increase.
V Fenech
Feb 22nd 2009, 16:07
@ R Abela
If you have heard Muscat's speech this morning you should have heard him support the Government in any new investment brought to Malta. And yes, there were numerous occasions when Dr Muscat mentioned the number of tourists in 2008. In fact he made a step further and suggested to the Government not the base his future strategy on numbers but the type of tourists coming to our islands.
You've missed the whole point man. The recession in the tourist industry is not the Government's fault for sure. But how can we belief that the Government has got the bull by his horns when it is not courageous enough to admit that the local tourism market has entered a recession?!!!
Joe Bonello
Feb 22nd 2009, 15:30
@ R ABela
What praise for tourism you are asking for ? I live from tourism . You know that we ended up three day week ?
Shut up please cause we are fed up of thiese hard times .
J Martinelli
Feb 22nd 2009, 15:18
V Fenech and the LP are still dreaming of consuming water and electricity and not pay for the real cost! Only in Malta, I say.
Dr Muscat also wants to pry into some 'Ministers who felt undue pressure' regarding the St. John's project. Since when convincing your own party's MPs to toe the party line, 'undue pressure'? Pressure yes, but undue?
Dr. Muscat is too young and never experienced the 'undue pressure' on former Ministers - with dire consequences, I may add - from his own predecessors of two or three decades ago!
The immigrants issue will be discussed in Parliament soon and we are not the least bit interested to hear Joseph lament the lack of action on the part of the government. What we want to hear from Dr Muscat is a workable plan which is within the parameters of international law and obligations and which will prevent future immigrant arrivals.
As usual we are in for a lot of rhetoric but a paucity of substance - and a great deal of waste of time.
mike pace
Feb 22nd 2009, 14:52
Dr Muscat got a future vision to lead this country away from the ruined of this weak and tried government and not to mentioned fractions starts to be shown in the Gonzipn rank and file and not the least among back benchers and also minsters whom are to dislike of the current policy run by one man show.
Dr Muscat keep up the good work and also keep shown the facts and true questions.
R Abela
Feb 22nd 2009, 14:42
@V Fenech
Did Dr Muscat praise the Govt for the record tourism year in 2008? I guess not. I suppose the global recession's effect on tourism is also the Govt's fault but the cushion we have as EU members is no thanks to the Govt. Sempre la stessa storia ...
John Borg
Feb 22nd 2009, 13:34
This government is crumbling and very soon the situation will become ungovernable for Gonzi. Hiding the problems and saying everything is fine wont do any good.
louise vella
Feb 22nd 2009, 13:20
It is positive that Joseph Muscat brings the illegal immigration crisis to the front of the political debate.
This morning I went to a political conference at the PN club in Santa Lucija. John Dalli too agreed that people are worried by illegal immigration, said he is worried too, and that it will have serious social consequences on the country.
So far the two big parties had a tacit consensus to avoid talking about illegal immigrants.Would it not be better if they now formed a consensus with the vast majority of the common people of Malta and said "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH". We have had enough hearing about Malta's supposed obligations. It's time Government and Opposition stood together to say that the people of Malta have right too in their own country.
V Fenech
Feb 22nd 2009, 13:01
Dr Muscat also spoke about the economic recession and the miserable state of the Minister of Finance and PM Gonzi who are still denying the fact that the problems are far away from Malta. The Labour Party is now giving its immediate alternative solutions to help us get out of this turmoil, starting with the removal of the hefty tariffs up to the removal of every unjust tax which even goes against the European norms and directives.
Joseph Muscat pointed out that while Minister Fenech is still denying the local recession, his fellow member of Parliament Robert Arrigo has confirmed that the local tourism industry is already in a recession!