Josef Bonnici for Euro Court of Auditors

Josef Bonnici, MP, the former economic services minister, has been nominated as Malta's representative to the European Court of Auditors.

Prof. Bonnici's nomination was given the green light during a cabinet meeting yesterday, according to government sources. He will give up his seat in parliament.

The European Court of Auditors is one of five institutions of the European Union. Its mission is to audit independently the collection and spending of EU funds and, through this, assess the way that the European institutions discharge these functions.

The EC treaty stipulates that the court is to assist the European Parliament and the EU Council in exercising their powers of control over the budget. It may submit observations on specific questions and deliver opinions at the request of the other European institutions.

The court has no legal powers of its own. If auditors discover fraud or irregularities they pass the information to the EU bodies responsible, so they can take the appropriate action.

The court has one member from each EU country, appointed for a renewable term of six years. Even after enlargement there will still be one member per EU country but, for the sake of efficiency, the court can set up 'chambers' (with only a few members each) to adopt certain types of report or opinion.

Prof. Bonnici, 51 and an economist, studied at the University of Malta and at the Simon Fraser University in Canada.

He was elected to parliament in 1992, was appointed parliamentary secretary a year later and Minister for Economic Services in 1995.

Last year, he was appointed one of the government's observers in the European Parliament.

Prof. Bonnici could not be reached for comment.