Last updated at 1 a.m. Thursday - Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant tonight held up parliamentary approval of Malta's ratification of the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility when he questioned the legality of the law under which the approval was sought.

The ratification was sought in a Bill to amend the European Financial Stability Facility Act. The Act was approved in July last year.

The Bill to amend it was moved today by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and unanimously given a second reading after a debate of three-and-a-half hours. The opposition said it would vote in favour.

However, when consideration in committee started, Dr Sant said that while the Act stated that the European Financial Stability Facility Framework Agreement had been tabled in the House, he had not found this agreement in the records of the House.

Mr Fenech said that once the law said the agreement had been tabled, it must have been. He was certain it had been presented to the opposition. He took no responsibility for what happened to documents after they were tabled.

Dr Sant said a copy of the agreement was tabled by Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi on Tuesday. He raised questions over the legality of the process leading to the enactment of the law last year.

The Acting Speaker, Censu Galea, suspended the sitting at about 10.15 p.m. to look into the records and establish the position.

The sitting was suspended until 11 p.m.

When it resumed, Mr Galea said no records of the documents resulted. However he had been advised by the Attorney General that since the law itself said that the document had been presented to the House, the legality of the process was not in question.

Replying to further questions by Dr Sant, Mr Galea said the debate indicated that the agreement had been seen, although there was no record of it.

Dr Sant said there was nothing to show that it was really tabled in the House and this raised serious legal questions. A law was enacted under false presence.

Mr Galea said that once it was recorded in the Act that the agreement was tabled, it was considered as having been tabled.

At this stage Dr Sant requested a formal ruling. The debate was suspended again at 11.15 p.m.

The sitting resumed at 12.45 a.m. In his ruling Mr Galea said the law was enacted in the normal manner. What was approved by the House became law. And declaration that a law was irregularly enacted could only by made by the courts.

The debate then continued normally. Mr Fenech said he was presenting another copy of the agreement to remove any doubts.

Dr Sant said the House was only now being presented with a copy of the amended agreement after the facility was extended. This was not how matters should be handled. The amended agreement included new conditions for the country and it was shameful that the Opposition never saw those new conditions.

Mr Fenech said he had presented a memorandum to the Opposition with all the changes. The government was not doing anything underhand. Should Dr Sant wish, this debate would be postponed to Monday to give Dr Sant more time to see the document.

Dr Sant confirmed that a memorandum had been received by the Opposition but said it was the amended agreement which counted. The Bill had to refer to the amended agreement, not just the agreement, as otherwise it would be vitiated. Even the bailout agreement with Greece has not been tabled.

An adjournment of the debate therefore made sense for matters to be clarified. It needed to be made very clear what Malta's new financial obligations were. 

Mr Fenech said he would consult the legal drafters to ensure that the amendments were correct and the debate would resume on Monday.

The bill provides for Malta to extend its guarantees to the EFSF to just over €700 million. It was being debated in parallel with another bill to authorise government lending of a further €24 million to Greece in terms of the eurozone bailout.

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