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Matthew Vella
Taking time out again from the busy schedule of the European parliamentarian, Labour’s head of delegation MEP John Attard Montalto has extended a political assignment to Central America with an impromptu holiday around the region.
On Friday Labour leader Alfred Sant said Attard Montalto was on a “personal political mission” when justifying the MEP’s absence for the plenary session on the crucial Port Services Directive, despite political missions being put on hold during plenary sessions.
Dockers welcomed Sant and MEPs Joseph Muscat and Louis Grech outside the Sea Malta building in Marsa with a raucous display of firecrackers to celebrate the defeat of the directive to liberalise handling services, which would allowed ships entering EU ports to use their own manpower rather than local labour.
But John Attard Montalto’s attendance record in the parliamentary committees he sits on have now confirmed the MEP’s pattern of truancy ever since he was first elected to Brussels.
Between January and November 2005 Attard Montalto attended just two out of 25 meetings of the Transport and Tourism committee, the committee which discussed the Port Services Directive and which produced the report on which MEPs voted on in Strasbourg last Wednesday.
MEPs are expected to attend committee meetings to hammer out draft laws and reports before taking them in for a final vote by all MEPs in the plenary.
He famously dubbed the committee “a waste of time 80 per cent of the time” when first queried by MaltaToday on his disastrous attendance sheet. He certainly hit the spot with his 92 per cent rate of absence.
It is yet another vacation break for Attard Montalto, after spending December on a cruise around southeast Asia. He had also missed out on his first two months in the European Parliament due to his honeymoon cruise.
Sant said Attard Montalto’s presence for the Port Services Directive vote was not necessary when it transpired there was sufficient momentum against the directive.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” Sant told MaltaToday when asked about the head of delegation’s uninterrupted truancy since being elected to a seat in Brussels. “We have already shown this in a concrete and clear manner. We were at the forefront of the issue on ports and we were effective,” he said about the defeat of the Port Services Directive.
This is not the first Attard Montalto’s erratic pattern in the European Parliament causes embarrassment for the MLP. He was absent for the vote on the European Constitution, abstained on the crucial Working Time Directive which Labour was against, and has also penned an inflammatory letter to the Libyan ambassador to Malta which his party has dissociated itself from.
Sent ahead of a European Parliament delegation visit to Libya on illegal immigration led by Simon Busuttil, Attard Montalto wrote to the ambassador saying “there is a strong suspicion that Libya is not only closing a blind eye but encouraging irregular immigration to Europe”. He admonished the ambassador not to “continue with the conspiracy theory” about Bulgarian and Palestinian medics sentenced to death for allegedly spreading AIDS among Libyan children “because it is ridiculous”.
Labour’s spokesperson for EU affairs Leo Brincat had said he was not aware in what capacity the Labour MEP wrote the letter. “His position is definitely not the same as the party’s. I dissociate myself totally from the language he used and the messages reported. It is unacceptable to any diplomat from any country.”
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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