Having followed the process of the recent NGO volunteer awards held in Strasbourg, I would like to comment on the fact that the phrase ‘Ms Vella ranked fourth’ seems to crop up a lot while ignoring the fact that a Special Jury Prize would take precedence over rankings in the public vote.
Ms Astrid Vella, representing the FAA and Malta, won the Special Jury Prize. This prize is awarded to the candidate whose cause was seen to be most worthy and deserving of encouragement, decided on its own merits and independent of public voting which always tends to be biased towards voters’ own countries. Such voting of course favours larger countries which can out-vote smaller ones; indeed it is already impressive how Malta’s votes, garnered from all over the world, far outstripped those received by countries like Germany, Italy, France and Britain.
Still, I don’t think the Maltese public is realising that given the fact that the Jury Prize was the only totally impartial prize presented, it is worth far more than the other three combined. It is indeed a high honour for a Maltese environmentalist to have won the leading award of an EU Forum hotly contested by candidates from the largest EU countries and coming from all sectors including the social, humanitarian and sporting fields. For that reason Ms. Vella and indeed the whole of Malta can hold their heads up high.
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