Alternattiva Demokratika has reiterated its call for a reassessment of Malta’s Church-State agreement.

The party welcomed Labour MP Luciano Busuttil’s recent statement calling for the revision of the 1993 agreement which was ratified two years later.

AD chairman Michael Briguglio said that, through this agreement, Church annulment tribunals became privileged over civil tribunals and this was uncalled for in a secular state.

“The divorce referendum result should lead to a reassessment of the Church-State agreement so that Malta may move closer to pluralistic, progressive and liberal societies,” he added.

Arnold Cassola, AD spokesman for EU and International Affairs, said Malta’s EU 2004 membership, endorsed by the majority of the population, was “a declaration of a membership in a political community of a secular nature that respects all religious sentiments with great tolerance, but insists that the separation between politics and religion is a fundamental principle. The situation in Malta today betrays the spirit on which the EU is founded.”