The Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday unanimously recommended that Parliament approve the Prime Minister’s motion for Malta to ratify the amendment to the Lisbon Treaty.
Malta and Ireland have a similar stance against abortion
This addresses the concerns of the Republic of Ireland on the interpretation of the right to life and the family.
It also deals with the right of member states to keep their competence on taxation issues and the right to veto on certain decisions about defence and security.
Foreign Minister George Vella told the committee that this protocol also applied to other countries. It was beneficial to Malta because Malta and Ireland were neutral countries and therefore would have reservations on issues of defence. The two countries had a similar stance against abortion and also insisted on keeping their rights on taxation issues.
For the first time, the Foreign Minister informed the committee of Malta’s stance in the next EU foreign affairs council to be held next week.
The Council will discuss the Syrian civil war and has to decide on whether or not to extend the arms embargo.
Dr Vella said the Malta Freeport authorities would be expected to increase controls on cargo transhipment if the embargo was removed, as advocated by Britain and France only. Malta was still in favour of settling the issue through a diplomatic, negotiated solution but was looking closely at how the situation developed in view also of the forthcoming Geneva conference on Syria proposed by the US and Russia.
Any decision taken by the council had to be unanimous.
The council was to discuss the situation in the Middle East, where, according to Dr Vella, the Israeli government was defying international law by building more settlements in occupied territory.
He said that the settlement to be built in East Jerusalem meant that the Palestinian territory would be fragmented in four parts, making the objective of a two-state solution nearly impossible.
He said he would also attend the Donors’ Conference in Brussels addressing the issue of poverty. Malta was offering €25,000 as a token pledge.
Dr Vella will be attending a meeting of the develop-ment committee where Malta must give its share in development funds.
Its share now amounts to 0.23 per cent of the Gross National Index (GNI), mainly in services paid for by the Government to irregular immigrants in Malta. The country must increase this contribution to 0.33 per cent by 2015 to reach the EU objective, which for Malta amounted to half (0.7 per cent) the contribution of other EU states.
Dr Vella said funds for these services made available by certain NGOs could not be calculated because the organisations were not registered with the NGO Commissioner.
The way forward was to have a system which would include every organisation while ensuring that every euro in development assistance was accountable.