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Kurt Sansone
The EU Constitution signed by the 25 Member States on Friday in Rome is a “diplomatic instrument” that cannot have the same character as a country’s national constitution, according to Labour leader Alfred Sant.
This differentiation somewhat diminishes the perceived supremacy the EU Constitution is bound to have on Malta’s Constitution, which is troubling none other than former Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
Writing in MaltaToday (see page 7), Sant says the Labour Party has not yet started discussing the EU Constitution, its possible implications, and how it should be ratified, but insists he is personally “keeping an open mind” about the issues concerned.
Aware that the EU Constitution will have both legal and political consequences, Sant calls for a public debate that would consider all issues at stake in a “studied, calm and serious” fashion.
What was a prevailing anti-EU sentiment within the Labour Party up to last year’s general election is now the rallying call for just a few individuals in the party.
Times have changed and the anti-EU brigade has one man to call its leader, the erstwhile premier Mifsud Bonnici. The septuagenarian lawyer called on all Labour MPs last Monday to vote against the EU Constitution when it comes up for ratification in Parliament.
As yet there have been no pronouncements on what the Labour Party intends doing however Sant says that all members of the party will be free to make their inputs. “This cannot but include Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici among others. The final decision will be taken democratically as usual, according to the Party’s rules,” Sant writes.
On Friday Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said he expected Malta to be one of the first Member States to ratify the EU Constitution. Some Member States, including the generally eurosceptic Britain, have opted for ratification through a popular referendum.
The “European Constitution” is actually a constitutional treaty between European nation states which are members of the European Union. It is therefore a diplomatic instrument, since the parties to it are states.
It does not have and cannot have the same character as a national constitution in the sense of the European Enlightenment, by which citizens as free individuals, are supposed to legally define the contractual rules that bind them together as citizens living together and enjoying equal rights in a commonwealth.
Indeed, the signing ceremony of the treaty in Rome was the prelude to a long period during which the different nation states which are party to the treaty will debate and ratify, or turn down, the treaty signed by their governments, each according to their internal ratification procedures.
The structures of the Malta Labour Party have not yet started the discussion about the treaty, including how it should be ratified. Of course all members of the Party will be free within the parameters of the Party’s overall policy, to make their inputs. This cannot but include Dr Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici among others. The final decision will be taken democratically as usual, according to the Party’s rules.
As far as I am concerned, I have an open mind about the issues concerned. However, it is clear that there are legal and political dimensions, which must be considered. If there are legal impedimenta regarding the application of the Treaty, they would by themselves constitute a primal – actually an overriding – consideration. Beyond that, if the legal conclusions are neither definitive nor overriding, the political considerations would still need to be fully studied.
We definitely should not, none of us, start shooting from the hip, both from the government or from the Opposition side. In all European states which are party to the treaty, a period of discussion and public debate is being envisaged, both on the Left and the Right. Malta should be no exception. We too will need eventually a studied, calm, serious consideration of the issues.
Labour will want to carry out its internal debate while remaining firmly and fully in line with its policy which was set out in a completely open and democratic discussion, and which was adopted during our General Conference of November 2003. We will need as well to take full account of the political and other developments that have happened since then.
I am sure that the final decision will be one that will fully respect all the values that Labour believes in and that it will be in the national interest. However, my feeling is that most Maltese, perhaps most Europeans, are now more interested in seeing that the vital issues affecting their livelihood - jobs, investment, taxes, education, health policy - are being seen to, rather than in indulging in academic debates about a European Union that is falling well behind the economic and social targets it set itself in the Lisbon strategy.
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