Cabinet ministers missed five important EU Council meetings in Brussels and Copenhagen during the past week because they had to be in Malta for the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition.
Ministers miss five meetings
Foreign Minister Tonio Borg, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino and Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici had to make last-minute changes to their travel plans to be present inParliament.
Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana and his deputy, Patrick Mifsud, were forced to participate inback-to-back meetings due to the ministers’ absence.
The meetings missed by Maltese ministers included a decision at the Economic and Monetary Affairs Council on Malta’s Excessive Deficit Procedure and decisions on new fiscal rules to be ushered in for eurozone member states in the coming months.
Another meeting dealt with decisions at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on the EU’s initiatives and programmes in the migration and asylum area and preparations at the General Affairs Council, usually attended by foreign ministers, for tomorrow’s informal summit which is to agree on a new fiscal treaty for the EU. “It is not normal for ministers to miss these meetings and although Malta was still represented well, a ministerial presence is much more desirable,” a Council official told The Sunday Times.
However, tomorrow the Prime Minister will be present at an informal EU summit which, apart from dealing with the final outstanding issues regarding the new fiscal treaty, will also examine a proposal put forward by the Commission for a set of urgent measures in view of rising unemployment in the EU.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is expected to launch urgent proposals so that billions of euros in EU funds from the current budget will be diverted into extraordinary anti-recession measures including boosting employment. Ironically, tomorrow will not be business as usual in Brussels, as EU leaders will fly-in while Belgium faces a general strike ordered by the main unions in response to severe austerity measures being implemented by the government due to high deficit and debt levels.
While the main commercial airports around Brussels are expected to be closed, arrangements are being made so that aircraft of EU leaders and their delegations will land at a military base some 30 km away from the EU capital.
The strike will also impact catering services at the summit venue itself, with EU leaders expected to be offered only coffee and sandwiches.