Speaker renews calls for Parliamentary autonomy

All political parties must commit themselves in guaranteeing Parliament’s autonomy Speaker of the House, Michael Frendo, said during the presentation of the reports issued by the Social Affairs Committee to the secretary-generals of the three major political parties in Malta.

Frendo renewed the challenge he posed to the political parties on the occasion of Sette Giugno to “commit themselves to guarantee the Parliaments’ autonomy to put it on the same level of other European parliaments.”

He said Parliament must have its own budget, its own employees and all tools needed to scrutinise the Executive.

Despite his call for further recognition of Parliamentary autonomy, two of the three political parties shunned the meeting. Labour was the only party represented, with PN secretary-general Paul Borg Olivier and his Green Party candidate failing to show up.

Although all three parties; the Nationalist Party, the Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika were invited for the presentation, Labour was the only party present at the meeting. The PL was represented by the party’s National Executive secretary Lydia Abela.  

In his brief address, Speaker Michael Frendo said such Parliamentary reports “distinguish Parliament from the executive.”

Reiterating his call for Parliamentary autonomy, Frendo said “Unfortunately this distinction is not clear in the public perception. Parliament is an autonomous institution although it is still awaiting the formal recognition of its autonomy.”

He urged the press and the media to inform the people about Parliamentary work in order to enlighten the public of the MPs’ efforts. “This will contribute to the strengthening of democracy in Malta,” Frendo said.  

Turning his attention to the reports presented to Abela, Frendo said these strengthen the relevance of Parliament with the public.

“The Parliament represents the political beliefs of the Maltese electorate as decided by the people in the last election and this exercise is the equivalent of a national reflection on a number of different issues.”

Frendo added that all political parties must take note of these reports because they are policy documents which could be included in their political manifestos and help them develop their ideas.

The committee’s reports include a number of issues such as children in poverty, sexual health, father-less children, the family court, the elderly, school uniforms, domestic violence and Paceville.  

The social affairs committee’s chairperson, Nationalist MP Edwin Vassallo said that the reports were published following the decision to compile a report, including minority reports committee’s on all issues tackled by the committee.

Vassallo expressed his satisfaction that all reports were unanimously approved by all members of the committee coming from both sides of the House, noting that “although we ensured that minority reports could be included, we never needed to publish a minority report because we were always in agreement.”

He described the social affairs committee as a “half-way house between the people and the formalities of Parliament.”

The Mosta conservative MP said the committee carried out political and social research which sought to represent the hurts and hopes of the people.

“We are not an executive committee but the recommendations which came out from the committee were effective and useful to all stakeholders involved in the issues we tackled,” Vassallo said.

Labour MP Carmelo Abela underlined the importance of Parliament’s independence from the Executive and said the committee’s reports reflect the realities in Maltese society.

On her part, PL National Executive President Lydia Abela thanked the committee for its sterling work and noted that the Labour Party will consider the recommendations included in the report in the drawing up of its manifesto.