Updated: Malta to retain full SAR and FIR rights and responsibilities - PM

(Adds PL and AD reactions)

Malta would be retaining the full search and rescue area and flight information region rights and responsibilities and would not succumb to pressure to give them up, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.

He accused the opposition of pleasing the Italian government in the diplomatic dispute Malta had with its neighbour rather than supporting the Maltese government.

Malta's dispute with Italy centres on where people saved at sea close to Italty but in Malta's SAR area should be taken.

Addressing a dialogue meeting in Zabbar, Dr Gonzi said that in the case of the Turkish vessel, the Pinar E, which saved 140 migrants last month, Malta won the battle and the saved migrants were taken to Lampedusa.

But in a more recent case, immigrants were saved by the Maltese army, which took them on one of its patrol boats. This had been an ethically, legally and morally correct decision.

But instead of finding the opposition's support, Opposition leader Joseph Muscat used Workers' Day to criticise the government and please the Italians.

He said there some abroad who had an interest in pressuring Malta to give up its search and resuce area, as well as the flight information region. But these, Dr Gonzi said, were rights and responsibility of the Maltese and for the Opposition leader to adopt a position supporting those who were trying to make Malta give something up did not make sense. The same could be said for Alternattiva Demokratika chairman Arnold Cassola.

"We are strong and we will retain our position because we do not see just to the tip of our noses. The country's interests should be sought first and foremost," Dr Gonzi said to applause.

In its reply, the Labour Party said that the Prime Minister could not blame the PL for the issue but his weakness with those who were using strength against Malta, even though they sat on the same benches as the PN's MEPs in the European Parliament.

The government had promised that the voluntary burden sharing agreement would solve the problem but it was now obvious that this pact was irrelevant.

It was not true that the PL was weakening the government's position with the Italian government. This was only a blatant lie, which not even Dr Gonzi himself believed.

In another statement, AD also took exception to the Prime Minister's claims saying he was misleading.

Chairman Arnold Cassola said the Prime Minister should get his facts right for AD never mentioned renouncing the flight information region.

"What AD noted is that Malta is at the moment totally incapable of coordinating effectively Search and Rescue operations in its 250,000 square kilometre area because of lack of naval vessels and personnel, so much so that Roberto Maroni's bullying attitude is prevailing.

"Whenever the Lega Nord Minister, whose populist and racist party is a partner of Berlusconi (incidently also an EPP member party like the PN), decides to send out his country's gunboats Malta's military is humiliated and forced to comply because of its limited resources."

AD did not want the traditional friendship between Malta and Italy ruined by Mr Maroni's cowboy tactics so Italy, Malta, Greece and the EU as a whole should see how Malta could be given adequate support to effectively control its vast search and rescue area. If these resources were not given, Malta should not be held responsible and blamed for what went on in such a vast area, he said.