Neutrality must remain a central plank of the Constitution but the Labour Party sees room for updating the clause, Joseph Muscat said yesterday.

He was reacting to the Nationalist Party’s electoral manifesto proposal to update the neutrality clause and make it relevant to situations such as the Libya conflict where Malta had to take a stand.

The Labour leader said: “Neutrality can be updated to make it relevant to modern day exigencies and changes can be done within the context of a constitutional convention.”

Labour has not yet unveiled its electoral proposals on constitutional change. But it has in the past floated the idea of a constitutional convention outside the confines of Parliament that will discuss a broad overhaul of the Constitution.

The neutrality clause, which still refers to the Cold War era of superpowers, became part of the Constitution in 1987 as part of a package deal that included important electoral changes to ensure the party that got a majority of votes in an election was awarded a majority of seats in Parliament.