Vella says Verheugen was "not serious"

Labour deputy leader George Vella yesterday criticised the manner in which the EU's commissioner for enlargement had spoken about Malta's EU membership bid, saying Gunther Verheugen had not been serious and had threatened the country.

Referring to an interview with Mr Verheugen published in The Times last week, Dr Vella said on the party's radio:

"Mr Verheugen should not have spoken the way he did, threatening a country which is still in the stage of deciding which road to choose.

"Had he been serious, he would have talked in a different manner."

In the interview, Mr Verheugen had said his analysis of the domestic situation was that EU membership had become the only issue for the Labour Party and the party was using it as an electoral platform.

Mr Verheugen called the MLP "a more or less single-issue opposition".

His advice to the Maltese was to wait until the package of negotiations becomes known before making up their mind.

He also stressed that the benefits of membership for Malta were much stronger than certain problems which might arise because of adjustments which had to be made.

Dr Vella yesterday described the negotiation process between Malta and the European Union over membership as absurd, because, he said, the government had first offered to give up what Malta had achieved in the past at great sacrifice, and then started negotiating to take it back.

The government itself knew that the process was absurd and had promised it would be given millions of liri by Brussels to compensate for the sacrifice made.

Not only had the money not come, he said, but the government had had to fork out millions of liri to implement the administrative structures of the EU.