The Labour Party yesterday presented a motion in Parliament calling for the resignation of Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana.

The motion accuses Mr Cachia Caruana of encouraging the government to rejoin Nato’s Partnership for Peace programme without first seeking parliamentary approval, undermining democratic principles and national sovereignty. Malta first joined the programme in 1995, only to withdraw a year later upon Labour assuming office.

Following intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, Malta rejoined the programme in March 2008.

US Embassy cables dating back to 2004 and leaked by whistleblowing website Wikileaks showed that Mr Cachia Caruana pushed for a “procedural Band-Aid” to rejoin PfP, with the government arguing that, in 1996, Malta had not actually withdrawn from the programme but “simply ceased active participation”.

Doing so would mean the government could argue that the PfP agreement remained in force throughout, allowing it to re-enter the programme without first going through Parliament.

Labour, which in the 1990s was opposed to PfP membership, has since warmed to the idea, provided Malta maintains complete control over any eventual troop deployment.

“This (motion) isn’t about PfP, it’s about the brazenly undemocratic way in which one individual is seeking to undermine parliamentary sovereignty,” Labour foreign affairs spokesman George Vella said.

Attempts to contact Mr Cachia Caruana yesterday proved futile. However, the Office of the Prime Minister issued a statement saying Labour had failed to grasp the Wikileaks cable, which, the government insisted, said the complete opposite of what it was alleging.

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