The Nationalist Party’s two European Parliamentarians yesterday issued a report to show they performed more work over the last 12 months than Labour’s four MEPs put together.

Simon Busuttil and David Casa said they had much more to show for themselves in six out of the nine categories of EP-related work done in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Perhaps the most important task that an MEP can be assigned is to act as a rapporteur to the Parliament – which entails drawing up a report – on an initiative or legislative proposal undertaken by the European Commission. MEPs can also draw up own-initiative reports on certain issues they feel are important to the European debate.

Between them, the two Nationalist MEPs handled a total of five reports from June 2011 to June 2012, while one of the four Labour MEPs acted as a rapporteur once during the same period.

Moreover, Dr Busuttil took on the most important Malta-related report, dealing with a revamp of the rules underpinning the EU’s border agency, Frontex. The PN delegation also outdid Labour in other aspects. These included the number of opinions produced, the tabled resolutions and the number of parliamentary questions submitted to EU Commissioners.

The attendance record of Nationalist MEPs during the Parliament’s plenary sessions in Strasbourg and Brussels was also marginally better than the PL’s.

On the other hand, the four Labour MPs did better than the Nationalists when it came to amendments of EP reports and explanation of votes.

“The statistics speak for themselves,” Dr Busuttil said. “Despite the rhetoric and media appearances in Malta, when it comes to real work in Brussels, Labour fails miserably,” he said.

Mr Casa said the PN delegation in Brussels has once again shown it was more interested in bread and butter issues affecting the Maltese rather than trying to depict a negative picture of Malta and its government.