The Parliamentary House Business Committee has authorised Speaker Michael Frendo to start the process for the launching of live video streaming of parliamentary sittings.

MPs agreed that live video streaming will first be introduced for meetings of the European and Foreign Affairs Committee. There will be a one-month trial, and the service will then be gradually extended to other committees and the whole House – depending on the outcome.

House and committee proceedings are currently only audio-streamed, while the House sittings are also carried live on a dedicated radio channel.

Nationalist MP Franco Debono welcomed the decision on video-streaming. He told timesofmalta.com that he had called for this development last year and the Prime Minister took up his suggestion and wrote to the Speaker about it in January.

The MPs this morning also agreed on a text to regulate the hearing of witnesses before the Public Accounts Committee. The draft will now be sent to the committee chairman for further action. The text was requested in view of procedural difficulties which cropped up during the lengthy, and still ongoing, debate on the granting of the contract for the power station extension.

Parliament will reconvene after the summer recess on Monday, when it will debate a Bill to amend the Notarial Profession Act.

On Tuesday it is expected to approve amendments to the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika Act. The amendments have already been agreed and there will be no debate. The amendments will lead to the removal of national honours conferred on former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and possibly others, including former Tunisian President Ben Ali.

On Wednesday the House is expected to debate and vote on a Bill to authorise Malta's contribution to the Greek bail-out.