Update 2 | MEP Simon Busuttil hits out at Labour counterpart over Acta

Adds Edward Scicluna's statement at 4:38pm
Adds Labour's statement at 5:58pm

Nationalist MEPs Simon Busuttil and David Casa attended more Parliamentary sittings, asked more questions and moved more resolutions then their Labour Party counterparts.

According to the annual report published today by the Nationalist Party, statistics show that during the 12 months spanning from June 2011 to June 2012, the two MEPs worked harder than the Labour MEPs despite being outnumbered.

Busuttil also hit out at Labour MEP Edward Scicluna of double speak with regards to the controversial Anti Counterfeit Trade Agreement (Acta) debate.

"While I attended all Parliamentary meetings concerning Acta, Labour MEP Edward Scicluna who made sure to be at the forefront of the public protest in Malta against Acta, did not show up where it counts. He never found the time to attend a single meeting on the subject held at the European Parliament."

Later this afternoon, Labour MEP Edward Scicluna retorted "Simon Busuttil cannot erase the u-turn he took over Acta. He got it wrong from the first time he and I discussed it at Student House. He said he was for it because it saves Maltese jobs."

Scicluna explained that he argued differently and in favour of  civil liberties. "Now that Acta is dead and buried, I would have thought Simon Busuttil would be discussing more important current issues such as the looming Excessive Deficit Procedure and its repercussions on Maltese families."

Months before finally voting against the agreement, the Nationalist MEP had gone on record as saying that he will back the agreement unless he in convinced otherwise. Asked what changed his mind, Busuttil said "in principle the agreement against counterfeit products is a good one, however questions were raised on its negative effect on internet accessibility."

The MEP noted that he followed and participated in every single meeting held about Acta in the past seven months in Brussels, including the meeting held by the Civil Liberties committee in which he leads the European Popular Party delegation.

He said that during these meetings it became clear that although the agreement was a valid one, difficulties existed on a number of issues including accessibility to information and internet.

Busuttil explained that two votes were taken in the European Parliament, with the first vote concerning a postponement of the final vote until the European Court of Justice rules whether the agreement needs to be fine-tuned.  He said that although the two Nationalist MEP voted in favour the vote was defeated.

"Then the Parliament decided to take a vote on the agreement as it is and we voted against as did the majority of the European Parliament."

Meanwhile the Labour Party also issued a statement accusing Busuttil and Casa of voting against the agreement "out of convenience and not out of conviction."

Labour said the two Nationalist MEPs only voted against Acta after a wave of public opposition.

"Labour and its MEPs were consistently opposed to the agreement and there was no need for any u-turns," the statement read.

David Casa expressed his gratitude to the former permanent representative Richard Cachia Caruana for his "incessant assistance" and augured to have a similar relationship with Cachia Caruana's replacement Marlene Bonnici.

During the press conference, PN secretary general Paul Borg Olivier and the two MEPs Simon Busuttil and David Casa could not resist taking a dig at the four Labour MEPs accusing them of doing less work despite occupying two more seats in Brussels.

Statistics taken from the European Parliament's webpage and Votewatch, an independent Brussels-based agency which monitors the Parliament's work, clearly show that cumulatively over the 12-month period, the two Nationalist MEPs were more active than the four Labour parliamentarians, at least on paper.

"Two Nationalist MEPs are worth more than three and a half Labour MEP's, since the fourth MEP Joseph Cuschieri only took his seat at the end of last year," Busuttil said.

He added that the performance over the last 12 months also reflect the overall performance of MEPs since the start of the legislature in 2009.Ż

The report shows that Labour MEPs asked 31 Parliamentary questions to Busuttil and Casa's 186. It also shows that Casa and Busuttil moved 21 resolutions to Labour's one resolution.

Another aspect highlighted by the report is the difference in attendance by the MEPs, with the PN parliamentarians averaging 82.76% to Labour's 80.15%.

However, statistics are subject to interpretation and the work of MEPs goes beyond statistics. MEPs carry out important lobbying within their own groupings, within the Parliament and with external organisations and entities.