Pressing the right button

Last week the European Parliament's plenary session meeting in Strasbourg endorsed, at first reading, a set of five laws dealing with asylum, including changes to the Dublin regulation and the setting up of a legally binding burden-sharing mechanism enabling the reallocation of immigrants among EU countries.

The changes to the Dublin regulation and the introduction of the mandatory burden-sharing mechanism, that I proposed along with other MEPs, were by far the most important for Malta. And they were approved overwhelmingly.

This means that the European Parliament has delivered. Five years ago no one knew anything about Malta's plight on immigration. Today the European Parliament is fully behind us.

This is not a coincidence. It is the result of hard work over a long period of time.

The Dublin Regulation is controversial in Malta because it places the responsibility for immigrants squarely on the EU country in which they first enter. This means that migrants first arriving, for instance, in Malta, become Malta's responsibility and if they move and are apprehended in other EU countries, they are transferred back to Malta.

Malta has long called for a change in these rules and changes to the Dublin regulation were formally proposed by the European Commission last December. The Commission proposed to suspend the Dublin rules on EU countries, such as Malta, which face a disproportionate burden as a result of their geographic and demographic situation. This would mean that immigrants moving from Malta to other EU countries would no longer be transferred back here, thereby alleviating our burden significantly.

In its vote, the European Parliament endorsed this proposal.

Apart from agreeing to suspend Dublin rules, the European Parliament also resolved that it is essential to establish a legally binding instrument to ensure greater solidarity between member states through the resettlement of the beneficiaries of international protection in other member states.

The key paragraph states that instruments shall be enacted, binding on all member states, in order to provide effective support to those member states which are faced with specific and disproportionate pressures due, in particular, to their geographical or demographic situation. These instruments shall enter into force no later than December 31, 2011 and they must make provision for the establishment of a scheme to reallocate beneficiaries of international protection from Member States which are faced with specific and disproportionate pressures to others.

Although still a first reading, last week's vote is very important because the European Parliament shares co-decision powers with the Council on this law. This means that Parliament's consent is required and its views cannot be ignored.

I know that what we adopted last week is resisted by some EU countries in the Council that are reluctant to share the burden because they feel that immigrants crossing the Mediterranean are not their problem. But it is their problem too and it is time for them to realise that they can no longer expect just a couple of countries to shoulder a responsibility that belongs to all. They can no longer express shock when immigrants are lost at sea but then turn a blind eye when it comes to hosting the immigrants who are saved.

The time for hypocrisy is over.

I am very satisfied with this vote because it is the result of years of hard work. We have been there for Malta and we have delivered.

On the other hand, I am far from satisfied with the way that Labour MEPs voted. Out of three, only one voted in favour. The second voted against, whereas the third did not vote although he was present in plenary.

This means that Labour incredibly managed to nullify its three votes and turn them into zero.

It was only when the news emerged in the media that they corrected their vote.

Now, of course, we can all make mistakes and that is understandable. But if we do so, we should have the courage to admit it and correct them immediately and not go into a state of denial, as the Labour leader did when he wrongly stated that all three Labour MEPs had voted in favour and that there was no mistake at all.

Almost one week later, he finally admitted that it was, after all, a mistake. Better late than never.

What is even less acceptable is for MEPs to commit mistakes on votes which are crucial for Malta. More so, on decisions that the Labour leader himself considers to be of such paramount importance as to warrant the need to veto all EU decisions sporadically.

There is a stark contradiction here, isn't there. In Malta the Labour Party plays the veto card but in Brussels its MEPs make a mess on crucial votes.

Their populist rhetoric on immigration has backfired and they really ought to go back to the drawing board and rethink their strategy.

Nor is this the first time that they bungled crucial votes. They had done so on other occasions too, such as on the removal of the opt-out in the Working Time Directive.

With just five MEPs and none to spare, Malta can ill-afford mistakes on crucial votes. It needs MEPs who can be relied upon to press the right button.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.