Kinnock 'reminds' Big Three of their EU commitment
Lack of Maltese translators 'no huge crisis'
European Commission Vice President Neil Kinnock yesterday urged the EU's Big Three - Germany, France and Britain - to be sensitive to the possibility of creating instability and causing alarm by meeting separately.
Wednesday's summit of the three in Berlin, held to discuss ways of reviving growth in sluggish EU economies, was fiercely criticised by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as a possible attempt at domination and was warily watched by other member states.
Fielding journalists' questions at the end of his two-day visit to Malta, Mr Kinnock said the Commission emphasised that larger countries had to be aware of the fact that they stood to benefit enormously from being part of a union rather than an association of three powerful countries.
"The benefit of being in the Union is not confined to the small and medium states; it extends to everyone," he said.
"They are entitled to have conversations and in no way would we try and stop that. But it brings with it the need to be additionally reassuring about the commitment to the Union, the commitment to the full participation of medium and small member states and the complete flattening of the idea that there are any parallel ambitions, which could be a distraction from the strengths and the potential of the EU.
"I'm certain they'll do all that but it certainly does not hurt them to be reminded," he said.
Mr Kinnock, who is also Commissioner responsible for Administrative Reform, paid a courtesy call on President Guido de Marco and met Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami with whom he discussed the island's preparedness and that of the Commission to take in the 10 new members.
Mr Kinnock said that of the areas which were still outstanding, none was of huge significance and none was insuperable.
Among the outstanding matters was the issue of how Malta could fulfil its obligations to provide all the translators and interpreters that needed to be taken on in Brussels.
"It's plain to everybody that it would be in everyone's interest if we had a bigger and more rapid supply of qualified translators and interpreters from Malta. Does this constitute a huge crisis? No, it doesn't. May 1 is the first day of membership - then there are 1,000 years after that," he said when asked to specify.
Mr Kinnock believed that Malta would continue to flourish on joining and he offered Ireland's success story, upon membership, as an example.
Earlier in the day, Mr Kinnock also took part in a public dialogue on The European Commission and Enlargement for public service senior officers and students at the University of Malta.
He met Education Minister Louis Galea and parliamentarians.
Mr Kinnock left Malta yesterday afternoon.