Informal agreement bridges conflicting motions

The feverish tension that gripped the second day of the Labour Party's annual general conference yesterday, threatening to split the delegates into two opposing camps, fizzled out after Labour leader Alfred Sant announced at the end of the session that an informal agreement had been reached on the motion moved by former Labour leader Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.

The agreement, a win-win situation, was reached following efforts by a team of bridge-builders within the party including deputy leaders Charles Mangion and Michael Falzon, the spokesman on EU affairs Evarist Bartolo and outgoing deputy leader George Vella.

The conference agenda yesterday was taken up by delegates giving their views on the two motions the party was to discuss.

One of the motions proposed the approval of a document drawn up by the party's executive and the parliamentary group the thrust of which was that once Malta would become a member of the EU on May 1 next year, the party would do its utmost to shield workers against the negative effects of membership and see that the benefits of membership would be equally distributed among the various sectors of society.

The other motion, moved by Dr Mifsud Bonnici, encouraged the MLP as the party in opposition and in government to work untiringly to change the agreement reached by the government with the EU.

The informal agreement reached yesterday unblocking the impasse freely translated reads: "This annual general conference encourages the Labour Party, in opposition and in government, to work untiringly so that with every means and wherever possible it would do its utmost to mitigate all the negative aspects of the package the Nationalist government had agreed with the EU.

"The Labour Party would also see to it that the agreement reached with the EU would not be a disadvantage and harmful to the people of Malta and Gozo, particularly workers.

"This is being done through the approval of the document called Il-Partit Laburista u l-Unjoni Ewropeja: ghall-gid tal-Matlin u l-Ghawdxin kollha (The Labour Party and the EU: for the common good of all the Maltese and Gozitans)."

Yesterday's heated debate leading to the agreement was primed by Labour MP Marie Louise Coleiro who appealed to the delegates to realise that the two seemingly opposite motions were more or less saying the same things.

She entreated delegates to see whether there was the smallest chance that Dr Mifsud Bonnici's motion be included in the document approved by the MLP.

Ms Coleiro's proposal was met with spontaneous applause that seemed to astound the executive members of the party on the top table.

After other delegates called on the delegates to toe the party line and John Attard Montalto delivered an impassioned appeal to delegates to stop hurting each other, it was Dr Mifsud Bonnici's turn. Dr Mifsud Bonnici walked up to the podium to an applause sparked off by Dr Sant.

"The party declared before the election that the agreement reached between the government and the EU would be detrimental to the country and especially to the workers.

"If we were honest when we said that the agreement would be detrimental to Malta, would we not be honest still if we said the same thing today," he asked to applause.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici explained that he was not calling on the MLP to take Malta out of the EU. "If I wanted to say that I would not have minced my words", he added.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici was challenged by former MLP president Toni Abela who said that behind the motion he could feel the digital imprint of someone else - a direct reference to former MLP leader Dom Mintoff.

He even called Dr Mifsud Bonnici a "messenger". Rejecting the charge, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said the motion was entirely what he felt in his conscience. The conference continues on Sunday when the delegates will vote on the motion originally moved by the executive members and parliamentary group but as amended yesterday. Dr Mifsud Bonnici had earlier stated that his motion would no longer stand if the amendment he proposed was agreed to.