An extraordinary general conference of the Labour Party started meeting this evening to discuss wide-ranging changes to the party statute announced by the party executive.

Party president Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said this was a historic opportunity which allowed the delegates to take stock of the past and also look at the future.

He said that since Joseph Muscat assumed the party leadership, the party had embarked on an analysis and discussion project which had culminated into the draft statute which was now being presented for the conference’s approval.

He said that one of the aims of the amendments was to give a stronger voice to the members, notably the young.

MEP Louis Grech said that change needed courage, but so did accepting change. To have an effective party they had no choice but to change and renew themselves. He said that change was a process which needed to continue and it was unacceptable not to take steps following the analysis of the reasons for the electoral defeat.

MP Karmenu Vella, an adviser to Dr Muscat, said the amendments to the statute were part of many other changes which many party members were working on. The party, he said, was being restructured in a more professional way and a distinction was being made between statutory and administrative functions.

Party leader Joseph Muscat underlined the problems the country is going through and said this country needed new solutions.

"To win we cannot live in the fear of losing, with a cloud of negativism on us. We cannot remain the people who always bring the bad news. The party founders wanted to tell people that they knew their problems and wanted to provide a better policy for them and for their children. We need to build a winning generation which leads to a new direction, which we have to be ready to give to the party before giving it to the country," Dr Muscat said.

He said the biggest challenge of the MLP was to be the home of all Maltese and the party everyone could trust to lead the country.

Dr Muscat said that although the party emblem will change, the torch will remain a party symbol because, as party leader Paul Boffa had said in 1933 it meant progress, a guiding light, intellectuality and love.

Dr Muscat saluted the Brigata Laburista, which is to be dissolved, saying it would evolve into a new educational foundation in keeping with the times.

He stressed that the party was not changing its social democratic principles and he was proud to be called a socialist.

The conference continues with workshops throughout this week. Delegates will meet in plenary sessions on Friday and Sunday morning.

For details on the proposed changes, see:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081122/local/mlp-set-to-discuss-major-changes-to-its-statute