Toni Abela won’t face MEP vote

Labour’s outgoing deputy leader for party affairs, Toni Abela is expected not to press ahead with a vote in the European Parliament on his nomination for the European Court of Auditors.

Abela, 58, held an hour-long meeting with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the Labour headquarters in Hamrun discussing the nomination, which was turned down by MEPs in the Budgetary Control Committee by secret ballot: 17 MEPs voted against, and nine in favour.

His 30-minute hearing was stunted by his lack of experience in top-level government posts, as well as being overshadowed by questions focusing on his political life both before and after the 2013 election.

“It was a cordial meeting, but Abela emphasised what he had already publicly stated, this time saying he would not pursue the nomination without the support of the budgetary control committee,” a party source told this newspaper.

Abela recently stepped down as PL deputy leader for party affairs, making way for the embattled minister Konrad Mizzi, currently fending off allegations over an offshore company he set up in 2015.

Abela has admitted to party friends that his delivery was disappointing. “He was shocked by the hostile attitude he felt within the committee. The patronising tone of one MEP who dismissed his vice-mayorship of Hamrun, as a small village of just 10,000 people, was a sore point.”

Abela’s predecessors who took their seat before the European Parliament’s inquisitors had their fair share of tough questioning, although the governmental experience of people like Louis Galea, Tonio Borg, Joe Borg, John Dalli, Karmenu Vella, and Josef Bonnici – all former ministers – was a determining factor in overcoming the less pleasant parts of their political careers. Abela on the other hand, faced a highly-charged committee that picked on his lack of policy experience and his political life both before and after the 2013 election, his work as a lawyer and as advisor to the Prime Minister.

Yesterday, Green MEP Igor Soltes (Slovenia), vice-chairman of the European Parliament committee that turned down Toni Abela’s candidacy for the European Court of Auditors, was reported in The Times to have urged Abela to withdraw his nomination.

Under the EU treaty, member state governments in the European Council appoint auditor nominees after “consulting” Parliament. This means that a vote in the plenary could still pull Abela through, but Soltes has declared he would tell MEPs not to vote in favour of Abela’s nomination.

“If he respects himself, and I am sure he does, Dr Abela should withdraw his nomination. He can go ahead if he chooses to and face the plenary’s vote but he has already promised in writing that he will respect the European Parliament’s opinion.”

The less orthodox route would be for Malta to press ahead in the Council of Ministers to overrule the MEPs’ vote, if they were to refuse Abela. While it is certainly rare for the EU Council to overrule the Parliament’s opinion, it is not unprecedented.

Neven Mates, who served as the Croatian representative on the Court of Auditors since 2013, was originally rejected both by the MEPs on the budgetary control committee – as Abela was – and then by MEPs in the plenary vote. However, the European Council nevertheless endorsed his nomination a month after the plenary vote.

As is typical for nominees, Mates had originally indicated to the budgetary control committee that he would withdraw his candidacy if MEPs rejected it. The EU Council’s move had frustrated MEPs, and Michael Theurer – the German head of the budgetary control committee – criticised it as “a sign of disrespect to the European Parliament”.