Cassola accuses Nationalists of sleeping over sixth EP seat

The general secretary of the European Greens has accused the government of putting the Nationalist Party's interests before the electorate's with its apparent reluctance to press for a sixth seat for Malta in the European Parliament.

Arnold Cassola, who narrowly missed out on an EP seat during last June's elections, expressed disappointment that the government remained "dormant" rather than insist on an observer seat five months after the European Constitution was signed.

Labour MEP John Attard Montalto recently took the cue and submitted a request to Martin Schultz, the leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, to support a sixth observer seat for Malta.

The Treaty for a European Constitution was signed on October 29, signalling the intention to give Malta six seats in the European Parliament as from June 2009, provided the treaty is ratified by all member states.

The number of Maltese MEPs for the 2004-2009 period was fixed by the Nice Treaty in the transitional protocol and cannot be changed. But the European Constitution lays down that each country should have a minimum of six seats in the EP.

Alternattiva Demokratika has made a case for Malta to obtain an observer seat from now until 2009. Should this request be granted, then it is the Maltese Parliament which will decide who the ideal candidate is, though AD feels it is only logical for Prof. Cassola to take the seat.

He had obtained 23,000 first count votes last June but failed to get elected after he fell short of the required quota.

Prof. Cassola said one had to also bear in mind that AD had lobbied hard for Malta to obtain its sixth seat after the Nice Treaty, to the extent that the European Parliament voted in its favour in July 2001.

An observer MEP has no voting rights but still holds political clout as he is permitted to speak in the EP and is given full rights as an MEP within the political group.

Besides, Prof. Cassola said, it would be logical for Malta to try and fight for an observer seat in order to try and offload some of the committee work of the other MEPs.

Prof. Cassola insisted that there is a concrete possibility that Malta will obtain a sixth observer seat because a precedent already exists.

After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the European Parliament took an ad hoc decision without any specific legal basis in European law to invite 12 observers as representatives of the people of East Germany. The 12 observers remained observers for over four years until the next European elections of 1994, when the number of German seats was increased by 12. In six weeks' time, Romania and Bulgaria will also get their full complement of observers, he said.

Accusing the PN and its two MEPs of failing to do their part, Prof. Cassola heaped praise on Dr Attard Montalto for rising above party politics, even if he or his party had nothing to gain.

An observer seat was, after all, no guarantee that he would get elected in the 2009 EP elections, Prof. Cassola said, indicating that the other parties feared an AD presence in the European institution.

Responding to claims that he was being driven by personal interests to secure a seat in the European Parliament, considering his term with the Greens comes to an end in two years' time, Prof. Cassola said: "I'm a university professor and I believe I have enough experience to get other jobs in politics. Of course I am interested in the job myself but ultimately this is not the point. Why does the country always get involved in petty politics?"

When contacted, Dr Attard Montalto said he expected Mr Schultz to answer his request in the coming weeks.

Mr Schultz is to present the request to the council of EP presidents, and if approved, would not have to go to plenary for approval of an observer MEP for Malta.

"Mr Schultz has promised to do his utmost to help our request. My only concern is that some people might argue that the observer seat can only come into effect once the constitutional treaty is fully ratified by all 25 countries," he said.