Roberta Metsola's decision to visit Ukraine last week to mark Europe Day was a sign of provocation for Russia, according to a Labour Party MEP candidate.

“She didn’t need to go there to continue provoking... While president Vladimir Putin stockpiles nuclear weapons in Belarus and conducts nuclear exercises, you should not continue provoking by going to Ukraine,” Clint Azzopardi Flores said.

The Labour MEP candidate was speaking in a debate organised by the Broadcasting Authority a week after the European Parliament president visited Ukraine where she met with Ukraine president Volydymyr Zelenskyy, among others. She visited just a day after British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and preceded a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

Roberta Metsola with Ukrainian President  Volydymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited a week later.

“The European Parliament president went behind everyone’s back to meet (Ukraine President) Zelensky. That was not her job as president, because the EP does not have any role in foreign affairs," Azzopardi Flores said.

The EU’s credibility as an agent of peace lasted until Ursula von der Leyen assumed her role as EU Commission president and  Metsola became European Parliament boss two years later, he argued. 

Azzopardi Flores stood along side the PN’s Norma Camilleri amd ABBA candidate Ivan Grech Mintoff.  Photo: Jonathan Borg

However, Azzopardi Flores said the EU could have accelerated Ukraine’s membership in the bloc as a way to protect, “but they wanted wars”.

He said the Labour Party and the socialists in Europe want peace and favoured diplomacy.

PN candidate Norma Camilleri spoke about the Vitals hospitals scandal and the money and time the country lost because of it. 

She said much more could have been done in Maltese health care were it not for the scandal. 

The PN candidate said the environment was not a government priority and the majority of fines issued by ERA, the environment authority were against the government and government entities, mostly because of cutting down trees illegally. She also called for better planning of road works and alternative means of transport.  

ABBA's Ivan Grech Mintoff said the Maltese electoral system and the way the Broadcasting Authority is composed discriminate against small parties.