Two Maltese MPs attending Lisbon Strategy conference

Two members of Parliament, one from each side of the House, have been asked to attend an "important" inter-parliamentary conference being held in Brussels to discuss the Lisbon Strategy.

It is believed the decision for the two MPs - Mario de Marco (PN) and Anglu Farrugia (MLP) - to be present for the conference was a "last minute arrangement".

The Times reported yesterday that Malta's was the only national Parliament among those of the 25 member states, bar Portugal - which has just had parliamentary elections, not to be represented at the conference.

The two-day meeting started yesterday afternoon with a presentation by the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso, highlighting the Commission's proposals to put Europe's economy on the forefront of the world economic development. The president in office of the EU, Luxemburg's Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker, also addressed the conference.

The inter-parliamentary meeting continues today with speeches from representatives of the member states' national parliaments.

Opposition whip Joe Mizzi speaking in Parliament during the adjournment yesterday referred to The Times report. He said it appeared that both the Opposition and the Government parliamentary groups had not been informed of the Brussels meeting because of something that was accidental.

He said the normal procedure was that he was informed of such events and then the group assigned its MPs accordingly. The opposition was very interested in this meeting and he was pleased that Malta would now be represented.

The Speaker, Anton Tabone, said he could now confirm that both sides would participate at the meeting.