None of Malta’s six MEPs attended any of the meetings of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. This prompted the committee’s chairman, Labour MP Chris Fearne, to publicly vent his frustration when speaking in Parliament earlier this week.
Stressing the need for more collaboration between the Maltese Parliament and its counterpart in Brussels, he noted that, despite being invited to attend all 16 Committee meetings held so far this legislature, none of the MEPs turned up, not even for a single sitting.
Contacted by Times of Malta, Dr Fearne said that without wanting to point fingers at any of the MEPs, he felt there might be lack of interest on their part.
“Although we always invite MEPs and make sure to furnish them with the Committee’s agenda, unfortunately, none of them have turned up for our meetings,” he complained.
“Without mentioning any names, some occasionally apologise for being absent but no one has ever turned up,” he said.
Dr Fearne conceded that, at times, there could be logistic problems because timetables could clash and the MEPs would be required to be present in Brussels when the Committee was meeting in Valletta.
“We would like to collaborate more with our MEPs because we believe that more regular interaction between our Parliament and the one in Brussels will address the perception of a democratic deficit of the EU institutions, which already exists.”
Asked whether the Committee could plan its meetings with MEPs to make sure they would be in Malta, Dr Fearne said he was ready to discuss the matter further.
Although normally MEPs spend half of the week in Brussels or Strasbourg, attending committee meetings, on Thursday’s they are usually in Malta. Times of Malta is informed that some of the meetings of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee were held on Thursdays and Fridays.
When contacted, David Casa, head of the PN’s delegation in Brussels, said the Nationalist MEPs would be “more than willing to attend” if the meetings were held when they were in Malta.
“If the Committee were to meet on those where we are present in Malta we would, of course, attend and contribute directly to the meetings,” he said.
He stressed that, despite their absence, his delegation always kept up to date with the discussions and liaised with Nationalist MPs on the Committee “to ensure that our views are always taken into account and represented during the meetings”.
Questions sent to Labour’s delegation in Brussels remained unanswered at the time of writing.
The Foreign and European Affairs Committee scrutinizes all EU legislation being transposed into Malta’s law books and holds regular meetings with Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU and European Commissioners visiting Malta.