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Labour MP Dr Jose A Herrera commends the appointment of a woman to what is one of the highest and most important positions a Maltese will take up in the EU and is surprised the media did not give due importance to the choice
While browsing through one of our English dailies, in one of the obscure back pages, a government notice caught my attention. It seems that the government has nominated Malta’s members to serve before the European Court of Justice and the European Court of First Instance.
Malta’s choice as judge of the European Court is present Attorney General Tony Borg Barthet and I augur him well. At the same time the government has chosen a female member of the legal profession, Ena Cremona, to serve as judge before the Court of First Instance. This news is, to say the least, sensational and it is unbelievable how it failed to impress the local media. The news item I refer to did not do justice in any way to the importance of the appointment.
The European Court of Justice is perhaps the most important institution in the EU, more so perhaps than the European Commission itself. The European Court of Justice, over the years, has proved to be one of the major motors of European policy and law. This supra-national court has been awarded wide and far-reaching powers. Its jurisdiction does not merely limit itself to the adjudicating of private disputes nor to the arbitration of disputes between states and individuals or entities.
Its competence goes far deeper. The court has the duty to promulgate guidelines on European policy itself, even over-riding decisions taken by the Commission and Council of Ministers. It has been criticised, in fact, for having assumed a perhaps too powerful role. It is not my purpose in this article to criticise or analyse the functioning of the court. It is, however, my intention to give coverage to what perhaps is one of the most important appointments our Prime Minister had ever to make throughout his long term in office, which appointment has amazingly avoided the limelight. What is truly more significant in this appointment is the fact that it has been awarded to a woman, but even that significant circumstance has gone unnoticed.
Not so other appointments. Take, for example, Malta’s nomination of Joe Borg as our first Commissioner, which, justly so, was reported with all the fanfare befitting such a high appointment. Even the appointment of our Attorney General to the European Court has been given certain coverage, and rightly so. The appointment of Malta’s first ever woman judge to what is plausibly the most powerful court in the EU has been totally sidelined and that is a shame.
From a personal perspective I was very pleased with Ena Cremona’s nomination. I have known her all my life since she was in my late father’s law course, which course ironically produced some of Malta’s top brass during the last twenty five years: two Prime Ministers, four cabinet Ministers, one Chief Justice, five judges, an ambassador, and now a member of the European Court of Justice.
Among friends and in legal circles Cremona is renowned as a woman of steel and of principles. The joke is that she is always in the opposition, being always so outspoken. It is not the first time that she was offered high judicial office, but she has always turned down such offers. Hopefully, in the twilight of her career, she will not do the same with regard to this present appointment, which will not only do honour to herself, but more so to the women in our society. In my opinion, more than anything, she owes it to them to accept.
If Dr Ena Cremona accepts the prize being offered to her, she will most certainly join the rank and file of top woman achievers. Surely, this will not be an easy decision, not only because of the burden of great responsibility the office carries, but also due to the fact that she will have to uproot herself at perhaps a difficult time in her life. My advice, however, will surely be to go for it, as I am sure she will prove her worth.
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