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I read what the Leo Brincat MP told your reporter Kurt Sansone in the interview published in MaltaToday on 21 November (‘With hindsight’).
When asked about his views on the EU Constitution, Leo Brincat was right in maintaining that the government should not rush the debate for the year’s end, as promised by the Prime Minister. There is simply no urgency for such a debate. So it is obvious - and here I totally agree with Leo Brincat - that the only reason for Dr Gonzi’s urgency is to deviate public debate from the budget measures which would have just been announced.
Where I do not agree with the Labour MP is when he said that (when considering the EU Constitution) “the point of departure should be the decision taken in November, when the general conference accepted the reality that Malta was now part of the EU.”
What has the decision taken by the general conference of the MLP got to do with the ratification or otherwise of the new EU Constitution? How could anyone, after all, not “accept the reality that Malta was now part of the EU,” once the result of the general election – even if obtained by political deceit, and Leo Brincat knows this only too well – gave a mandate to the PN government to take Malta into the EU ?
During the general conference no mention at all was made about the EU Constitution. Indeed, the final “compromise” motion that was approved by the party delegates, mentioned “Il-Partit … ixejjen l-aspettattivi u l-effetti … ta’ dak kollu li hu negattiv fil-pakkett” (“bringing to naught the negative aspects and effects of the treaty of accession”) which the PN government had negotiated with the EU.
The new EU Constitution which repeals all the existing treaties, has many more negative and harmful aspects and effects than the treaty of accession. With the most harmful of all being that which is found in Article 1-6 which provides that “The Constitution and Law adopted by the institutions of the Union in exercising competencies conferred on it shall have primacy over the law of the member states.”
This Article would revert Malta back to its colonial past if ratified by two-thirds of all MPs in our parliament. And is also ratified by all other member states. Then one can truly say that we are “turning the clock back”, if I am to use Leo Brincat’s own term!
Besides, did not the Hon Leo Brincat take the oath of allegiance to defend Malta’s Constitution when he was elected to parliament? And is it not true that Malta’s Constitution is to be considered as Supreme to any law or other Constitution when such a law or Constitution is in conflict with our Constitution?
Eddy Privitera
Mosta
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