Three Maltese MEPs – Simon Busuttil, David Casa, and Louis Grech – have voted against a report which included amendments to put the Lisbon Treaty to a referendum.
Two particular amendments, tabled by the European Green Left-Nordic Green Left bloc, called on the European Parliament to put the Lisbon Treaty to the people’s vote, were voted down by a large majority of MEPs.
They specifically called on the EP to respect the outcome of the referendum in Ireland – which is obliged by its Constitution to put all European treaties to its electorate to decide; and to put the European Treaty to the referendum test in all member states following a debate.
Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil told MaltaToday he voted against these two amendments, “tabled by the Communists”, because “they were not part of the compromise package that was agreed on a cross-party basis. As a result, they were rejected by an overwhelming majority of the chamber – 499 votes against, and a majority of 526 votes against, for the two respective amendments.”
Busuttil, formerly the government’s main advocate for the EU accession referendum in 2003, had previously stated his support for ratification of the Treaty by referendum. “I do favour ratification by referendum. How can I be against?” he had told this newspaper, however specifying that the 2003 referendum had covered all major implications of EU membership and the EU Constitution. “Consequently, a referendum in our case would not really produce a groundbreaking debate.”
Busuttil’s other colleague, David Casa, a figurehead of the pro-membership movement IVA in 2003, was among the Maltese MEPs who felt a referendum was not required. “With regards to amendments 32 and 34, I would like to point out that I followed the EPP-ED line and voted against these amendments since they did not form part of a compromise deal agreed by nearly all political groups. May I also point out that these amendments were tabled by the communists and were eventually rejected.”
Labour MEP Louis Grech said that parliament had no “legislative power, competence and moral ground to do anything but respect the decision of the Irish people,” adding that in this sense the amendment was “superfluous and stating the obvious”.
“By virtue of voting to undertake to respect the Irish decision, it could also imply that Parliament has the right to question, challenge and not to respect the outcome of the referendum which is clearly not the case. The Irish referendum was not mentioned in the report and the amendment was irrelevant to the main trust of the Corbett/Vigo report. It is self-evident therefore that there is no other option but to respect any eventual outcome.”

Poor debate
The Lisbon Treaty widens the powers of the EU commission and the European parliament to make the 27 member union more governable, giving the European and national parliaments a bigger role in the decision-making process. With just a few exceptions, it would place the Council and the European Parliament on an equal footing as lawmakers, such as in the budgetary procedure and in justice and home affairs. The President of the Commission, proposed by the European Council on the basis of the European election results, would be elected by the European Parliament.
The approval in the Maltese parliament of the Lisbon Treaty was marked by the poor debate which preceded it, having been approved by both sides of the House within a matter of days. Even Malta’s MEPs had expressed disappointment at the lack of debate. Joseph Muscat even called it “mediocre”.
“It is obvious that our society is suffering from EU fatigue: after so many years of hard-selling, people are fed up of EU campaigns, and most politicians – especially those who depicted membership as some sort of ‘land of milk and honey’ – are not up to facing people with the explanations,” Muscat had said.
David Casa also described the debate in Malta as “nearly non-existent” while Simon Busuttil was one MEP who organised a series of public communication initiatives on the new treaty with a public dialogue.

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt