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Matthew Vella in Brussels
Labour MEP John Attard Montalto’s truancy at the European Parliament has been further confirmed as official documents at the Brussels registry show the MEP has attended just a handful of his committee meetings.
The seat of select group meetings where MEPs discuss proposed legislation before the final vote at the plenary, Attard Montalto’s committees have seen little of the Maltese MEP as official documents pay witness to a general trend of non-attendance.
Attending just four meetings out of 34 for the industry, research and energy committee, Attard Montalto has also been skiving the transport and tourism committee – attending three meetings out of 16 – and never signing the attendance register for the human rights committee, a subcommittee for which he is a substitute member.
Attard Montalto is claiming he is not required to sign the committee register, arguing he attends or decides not to attend according to his agenda and “according to what I feel are the interests of the PES group and of Malta in the European Union.”
In his first year as MEP, Attard Montalto registered an attendance rate of 11 per cent for his committee meetings. The MEP last week said he regularly signed the general register at the European Parliament, choosing not to sign committee registers – a practice which his fellow MEPs have not exactly taken up, given their regular appearance of their names on the committee minutes.
Last week, Attard Montalto also said he is not a regular attendee on his substitute committee, the tourism and transport committee. “I think it was ill-chosen for Malta. I rarely attend because tourism rarely features on the agenda and in transport matters, the subjects always concern railways, canals and road transport which do not concern Malta. I usually see the agenda, and I don’t attend because it is a waste of time 80 per cent of the time.”
The MEP said he preferred attending the human rights committee, although committee documents do not feature his name on the attendance register – for none of the 11 meetings.
Attard Montalto has also been sparing on his delegation meetings: a member on the EP’s delegation for relations with the Gulf states, the MEP attended one meeting out of five, and just two meetings out of five for the delegation of the EP’s relations with Australia and New Zealand, for which he is a substitute member.
Even Nationalist MEP David Casa was not a regular attendee at the economic and monetary affairs committee, with just seven meetings out of 24, but he attended 21 meetings out of 23 on the fisheries committee.
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