Reporting on an interview with European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot, Kurt Sansone (Barrot's Ambitious Europe, October 10) took the liberty of concluding that "even Nationalist Party MEP Simon Busuttil, following on the steps of the Labour Party's proposal, this week pronounced himself in favour of mandatory burden sharing". This is a gross misrepresentation of my position on the matter.

Readers will surely recall that in May this year, the European Parliament voted at first reading on the review of the Dublin Regulation, calling for the introduction of a mandatory burden sharing mechanism. I was among the MEPs who put forward amendments to achieve this result.

On that occasion, the three Labour MEPs characteristically showed us where they stood on burden sharing by voting in favour, against and abstaining at the same time. May I also recall that my report on a Common Immigration Policy adopted by the European Parliament in April this year also called for mandatory burden sharing and was the first European Parliament resolution to do so explicitly. It is incredible how a journalist from The Times' stable could have ignored these prominently publicised developments in reaching his gratuitous conclusion. Unless, of course, he has unintentionally fallen victim to the Labour Party's demagogy on immigration.

Editor's note
The reference to Labour's proposal could have been better worded but it was Labour, in arguing against voluntary burden sharing in the Immigration and Asylum Pact, that had insisted on mandatory burden sharing back in September last year.