Labour to hold assemblies

The Labour Party is to hold open discussions in the coming weeks on the EU constitutional treaty and on a programme for the country's social and economic revival.

Addressing a meeting of the Gzira committee of the Ghaqda Veterani Laburisti, Labour leader Alfred Sant said a group of independent experts had last year prepared a draft discussion document on which the Nationalist Party had based a lot of untruths in the past weeks.

But the MLP would do things as they should be done, he said. It would discuss the document in the coming weeks to see where the experts' proposals could be improved.

It would also be holding a number of assemblies where the document would be discussed. This process should lead to the party's general conference in June and July when it would take policy decisions.

Dr Sant said the party would also be discussing the EU constitutional treaty so that the general conference would take a final decision on whether the MLP should approve the treaty, oppose it or approve it with reservations.

The party leadership had commissioned reports on the treaty which would be published so as to serve as a basis for discussion.

Even on this issue, the party would be organising a number of assemblies where the required debate would be held.

Dr Sant insisted that everyone's genuine beliefs should be respected and no one should be labelled because no one was a traitor.

The final decision had to be taken by the general conference and the party would go ahead from there.