PM insists on position to use veto in cases of national interest

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat defended his government's decision to resort to veto if Malta were not to be satisfied with the way the European Union and Member States were to treat Malta on migration.

During this evening's parliamentary session, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said that "threatening" the European Union would not achieve any results, except "harming Malta like it harmed other countries".

"Using the veto for the national interest is not an act of machismo but showing that we were not prepared to let others ride roughshod over us as we face increased pressures from irregular migration and less burden sharing," Muscat insisted.

He went on to refer to statement given by former prime minister Eddie Fenech Adami who had declared Malta would be empowered to either approve of the veto the EU's 2006 budget.

Muscat said being European did not mean bowing to everything which the EU proposes.

"I saw prime ministers defending their countries' interests without inhibitions. None of the other heads of state hold back from defending their countries and we will definitely not act as spectators," he said.

On the Labour government's stand on migration, Simon Busuttil warned that the government had to be careful how it reacted as "word would reach Brussels". This led Muscat to quip that he was aware that internet service had reached Brussels.

He warned that if the member states didn't defend their national interests, euroscepticism would increase among citizens of the European Union.

While Busuttil paid tribute to former prime minister Lawrence Gonzi and former ambassador to the EU Richard Cachia Caruana for securing €1.12 billion in EU funds, Muscat said at no point did he ever tried to undermine this success.

"But from the Opposition I notice a position where everything which is good is attributed to the PN administration whereas everything which is negative is our fault. Honestly, this shows that you want to continue dividing this country," Muscat told Busuttil.

He added that like the PN administration secured the EU funds, it had also risked losing the funds which were meant to be allocated for specific projects.

"The problems we found vis-à-vis EU funds were brought by the PN administration. We are doing our best to solve these problems without feeling the need to alarm anyone. But don't for a second think that they left some 'state-of-the-art' situation," Muscat said.

With Busuttil pointing out that Malta would not benefit from the EU funds allocated for the youth guarantee programme, Muscat recalled that Lawrence Gonzi had insisted Malta did not need such a programme.

He went on to question what was the PN's position on a report presented by the pensions working group. He said, that while the Labour government was against increasing the retirement age, the position of the Nationalist Party was not yet known.