Cachia Caruana grilling | AG rules PfP membership did not need Parliamentary ratification

Updated at 9:29pm

In his third appearance before the European and foreign affairs committee, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi presented a letter from the Attorney General Peter Grech in reply to a request by the Prime Minister for legal advice on whether the 1996 Nato security agreement needed ratification by Parliament or by law.

The committee is currently discussing the Opposition's motion calling for the resignation of Malta's permanent representative to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana over his alleged involvement in re-activating Malta's Partnership for Peace (PfP) membership without consulting Parliament.

The committee decided that Cachia Caruana will be testifying on Tuesday 29 May as the Prime Minister today made his third and final appearance.  

In his reply to Gonzi's request the Attorney General (AG) noted that the agreement is not a "an international agreement concluded between States." The AG concluded that the ratification of the agreement "falls within the general powers of Government."

A calm but combative Prime Minister appeared to be well prepared for tonight's grilling and at certain moments the Opposition members sitting on the committee were visibly exasperated by Gonzi's stoic performance.

At one point Gonzi affirmed "I am the Prime Minister and not Cachia Caruana. I take the decisions and not Cachia Caruana."

The Prime Minister also presented a confidential memo submitted by Richard Cachia Caruana in 2004, in which he recommended the Prime Minister to go ahead with Malta's participation in Nato meetings since "a Security Agreement with Nato is actually in place."

Labour MP Leo Brincat took the Prime Minister to task over the memo and asked whether he had communicated in writing with Cachia Caruana. Brincat also said that the memo presented today should have been presented earlier.

Gonzi wriggled out of the question posed by Brincat by saying that he had presented all documentation relevant to the Opposition's motion.

"Had Cachia Caruana not given me this kind of advise, I would have sacked him, because his role is to advise the government in the national interest," Gonzi said.

Gonzi followed this bold statement by explaining that the documents clearly and categorically show that Cachia Caruana and his officials at Malta's EU representation had done their best to resolve the problem Malta was facing, because it had no access to Nato-EU security documents and meetings.

The Prime Minister calmly added that he "cannot understand or accept the Opposition's fixation with Cachia Caruana."

Gonzi also presented a number of media reports quoting Labour's foreign affairs spokesman George Vella as saying that the Opposition was calling for Cachia Caruana's resignation based on a cable leaked by Wikileaks, which imply that Cachia Caruana was working with US government officials to take Malta back in Partnership for Peace behind parliament's back.

The prime Minister also added that other sensitive documents which he has not produced can still be viewed by members of the Committee if requested.

In a heated exchange with Labour MP Luciano Busuttil Gonzi said the government could not go before Parliament when discussions were still ongoing. Gonzi said it was only after four years of hard work that the decision was taken, in 2008 to re-activate Malta's participation in the PfP programme.

"That is why I told the US ambassador in January 2008 that Malta will be rejoining PfP after the election," Gonzi said.

Busuttil claimed that Malta's PfP was "terminated and not suspended, therefore it needed Parliament's approval to be re-activated."

On hearing this, an agitated Foreign Minister Tonio Borg asked Busuttil, "why didn't you present the motion four years ago?"

After challenging Busuttil whether the Opposition agrees with Malta's PfP membership, to which the Opposition MP replied in the affirmative, Gonzi said  that although Malta's membership in PfP was terminated, Malta did not need to sign a new set of documents on rejoining in 2008, because the agreement signed in 1995 by the Maltese parliament was still applicable.

Busuttil asked the Prime Minister whether this meant that Malta could have gained access to the NATO documents and meetings without rejoining PfP.

Gonzi said this was not possible and stressed that the Government exhausted every possibility before rejoining PfP.

He noted that the bottom line is that the Opposition had only presented this motion calling for the resignation of Cachia Caruana for partisan political reasons. "Admit that your whole premise is flawed and built on a gross misunderstanding. The premise is wrong and thus the motion is wrong."

Gonzi added that Labour conjured a strong and terrible accusation against Cachia Caruana and "after all the sittings I cannot understand what on earth could possibly be constituted as betrayal or treason. The only conclusion I can draw from these sittings is that Cachia Caruana has worked very hard in the country's best interests."

In his final remarks, Gonzi said the minutes from all the Nato meetings revealed that the government had no intention to rejoin PfP. And the Opposition's motion only reinforced Cachia Caruana's honesty. Gonzi explained that all documents show that Cachia Caruana recognised that the final desicion had to be taken by politicians.

The committee's chairman, Francis Zammit Dimech adjourned the meeting to Tuesday when Cachia Caruana is expected to appear and give his testimony.