The Labour Party explained today that Leo Brincat was forging ahead with his nomination to the European Court of Auditors because the vote against him in the European Parliament was not about his competence or integrity.

Almost two thirds of MEPs voted against Mr Brincat's nomination on Tuesday, but a final decision has to be taken by the Council of Ministers.

Mr Brincat has been criticised for not having stepped aside, having said before the vote that he would respect the European Parliament's decision.

The Labour Party in a statement said close examination of what Mr Brincat actually said showed that Mr Brincat had declared that he would respect the EP decision if it was based on his competence and integrity.

"In Leo Brincat's case, no one raised questions about his competence and personal integrity before, during or after,"  the Labour Party said.  

It accused the PN and Simon Busuttil of putting partisan interests before the country.

This, it said, was the second time that the PN opposition broke with tradition going back to 2003 of backing the Maltese nominee for European institutions.  

It said the former Labour opposition had actively backed the nominations of Josef Bonnici, Louis Galea, John Dalli and Tonio Borg, all former PN ministers who, it said, had faced allegations against themselves personally. The then opposition was never consulted about the nominations.  

The people would note what was happening and would not trust those who harmed their country, the PL said.  

PN READY TO BACK ALTERNATIVE CANDIDATE

Earlier, the Nationalist Party said it was ready to back another Maltese nominee to the Court of Auditors as long as he was not associated with Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri because of their involvement in the Panama Papers scandal. 

It explained that Mr Brincat could not be supported because he had backed Konrad Mizzi in a confidence vote in parliament. His position was incompatible with the function of members of the European Court of Auditors, whose duty is to weed out abuse. 

The PN called on Mr Brincat to stick to his own declaration before the European Parliament's Budgetary Committee, where he had said that should his nomination be rejected, he would not  press on before the Council of Ministers. 

Malta should not assume the presidency of the European Union in a state of confrontation with the European Parliament, the PN said, adding that it was ready to back an alternative candidate in order to stop the harm being caused to Malta by Prie Minister Joseph Muscat's intransigence.