News • 02 March 2003

Jobs for the boys, and for Labour MP’s dad

While the Labour press has once again claimed ‘high-profile’ and ‘vociferous advocates’ of EU membership will be front runners in the race for EU posts, MaltaToday can confirm that the father of Labour MP Chris Cardona enjoys an EU appointment.

Both maltastar.com and Union Print’s L-Orizzont have speculated that European Commission jobs are predestined to land in the laps of the hbieb tal-hbieb (friends of friends) of the Nationalist Party.

The accusations concern the EU Commission jobs up for grabs by Maltese nationals. The Labour media speculates that it will be 83 Nationalist lackeys taking up the posts.

The speculation even continued following EU Commissioner Neil Kinnock’s confirmation that competitions for jobs will be handled by the Commission and that applicant countries will absolutely have no say in the recruitment exercise, as reported exclusively in MaltaToday last Sunday.

MaltaToday caught up with Labour MP Chris Cardona, whose father is a linguist working at the EU Office for Official Publications in Luxembourg.

Cardona was asked how he reconciled Labour’s accusations about Nationalists being awarded Commission jobs, with the fact that his father was employed by the EU.

"My father is a linguist and works in Luxembourg. He has a career and he is pursuing it abroad. This is something that does not belie upon me and it does not upset me.

"I don’t think it is fair that such questions are made. I don’t think they are very relevant. Everyone knows I am a moderate speaker and that I speak openly with everyone."

Cardona told this newspaper his father was not nominated by Government but appointed by the EU Commission following an interview in a transparent process.

When MaltaToday suggested to Chris Cardona that an identical process would be applied to the candidates for the 83 posts, the Labour MP said it had been a historical occurrence for both Labour and Nationalist administrations to appoint their own boys to top positions in the diplomatic corps.

The EU is no diplomatic corps, but Cardona continued: "What I certainly do not like is the fact that Government arbitrarily hand-picked a couple of lawyers to go up to Brussels and conduct its studies on the EU. This sort of thing happens with all governments. It is always people close to the core that end up occupying certain posts."