|
Matthew Vella
Labour MEP John Attard Montalto this week delivered a brief intervention in Strasbourg on his committee’s work in drawing up the annual human rights report for 2005, when he never even attended one single meeting of the European Parliament’s sub-committee on human rights.
Attard Montalto, a substitute member on the sub-committee, does not appear in any of the attendance registers for the 13 meetings held throughout 2005, according to the committee minutes seen by MaltaToday.
Questions sent to the MEP through his secretary Nathalie Attard, were still unanswered before going to print.
Earlier this week, Attard Montalto boasted about the EU being more active and visible in the field of human rights in his intervention over the annual report on human rights which the sub-committee he is a member of helped compile. The MEP also warned that the Union’s institutions had to be more coordinated in addressing the issue of human rights.
The former Labour minister and MP made clear reference to the arson attacks against journalists Daphne Caruana Galizia and Saviour Balzan. Attard Montalto expressed solidarity with all journalists who became targets of those who do not know what freedom of expression means.
Since taking up sojourn in Brussels, the former minister and Labour MP’s erratic pattern has been repeatedly confirmed when between January and November 2005 Attard Montalto attended just two out of 25 meetings of the Transport and Tourism committee, which he famously dubbed “a waste of time 80 per cent of the time”.
He was under great criticism for not being present for the crucial vote that defeated the Port Services Directive.He was also absent for the vote on the European Constitution, abstained on the 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.
His performance as MEP has also attracted derision from party members. During last January’s general conference, MLP assistant secretary-general Joe Falzon took a dig at Attard Montalto by stressing that the MLP had elected “three and not two” MEPs. The MEP was also left out of Alfred Sant’s thank you list in is closing speech, who instead reserved special gratitude for fellow MEPs Joseph Muscat and Louis Grech.
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
Links: www.maltatoday.com.mt/2006/03/19/t17.html
|
