Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday redoubled his defence of Malta’s EU Ambassador Richard Cachia Caruana, saying it was the latter’s job to offer solutions to government problems.
Had he not given me solutions, I’d have fired him
“Had Mr Cachia Caruana not given me a set of solutions, I’d have fired him,” Dr Gonzi told Foreign Affairs Committee members.
“I expect all government officials to come to me with solutions rather than problems.”
Dr Gonzi was testifying for the third consecutive time before the committee, which is analysing an Opposition motion calling for Mr Cachia Caruana’s censure and resignation.
The Opposition believes Mr Cachia Caruana schemed together with foreign ambassadors to circumvent Parliament on issues relating to Malta’s membership in Nato’s Partnership for Peace programme.
Its argument is based on a US diplomatic cable dating back to 2004, which was leaked by Wikileaks last year.
Dr Gonzi argued that the Opposition motion was built on a false premise – that the government had been seeking to rejoin PfP in 2004 – and quoted several media reports on the motion that he said showed this.
The Prime Minister also presented committee members with a legal opinion from the Attorney-General.
The opinion found that a security agreement between Malta and Nato dating back to 1996 did not amount to a treaty and did not, therefore, require ratification by Parliament.
Much like previous sessions, yesterday’s committee hearing shed little light on the case, with both sides digging in and arguing its respective position.
A sizeable period of time was taken up in a verbal three-way between PL representative Luciano Busuttil, committee chairman Francis Zammit Dimech and Dr Gonzi.
As the three bickered, most committee members stared vacantly into space, while others took the opportunity to rearrange their papers. The government had spent the period between 2004 and 2007 trying to find a way of gaining access to sensitive EU-Nato talks without having to re-enter PfP, the Prime Minister said.
“By then, it had become evident that the only workable solution was re-joining PfP. So once I won re-election in 2008, I saw a window of opportunity and took it.”
Dr Gonzi scolded Dr Busuttil for asking why the government had never raised the problem in Parliament.
“We were still trying to find a workable solution. What was I meant to tell Parliament? That we had some proposals but none of them were feasible?”
As the session dragged on, committee members appeared to get bored.
PN representative Francis Agius scribbled on a notepad as his colleague Charlo Bonnici whipped out his smart phone.
On the other end of the committee table, PL representative Luciano Busuttil began leafing through a copy of Italian current affairs magazine L’Espresso.
The final word was left to the Prime Minister, who reiterated what he had said initially.
“The government’s position was always consistent and this is proven by all the documents. An accusation of treason has been made against Richard Cachia Caruana and I haven’t heard a single piece of evidence to substantiate it.”
Mr Cachia Caruana is set to appear before the committee at its next meeting, pencilled in for Tuesday evening.