European Council ignores MEPs’ vote and approves Leo Brincat nomination to Court of Auditors

The heads of Europe's governments have approved Leo Brincat's nomination as Malta's representative in the European Court of Auditors, as expected following the approval by the permanent representatives of EU member states, two weeks after his nomination was rejected by the European Parliament.

There was no vote or discussion, the decision being a mere formality for ministers convened during a Council for industry ministers. Malta was represented by the minister for the economy, Chris Cardona.

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil tweeted that ignoring the clear vote of MEPs meant opening a rift with the European Parliament ahead of Malta's presidency of the EU. "It is silly," Busuttil quipped.

Ignoring a clear vote and opening a rift with the @Europarl_EN just before our EU Presidency is silly, when you also have #PanamaPapers. https://t.co/i3Kircc1MV

— Simon Busuttil (@SimonBusuttil) September 29, 2016

"Malta's reputation has taken another beating as a stubborn Muscat ignored the EP's absolute majority, which was a clear vote, but which Muscat chose not to take heed of. What Muscat did is dangerous, choosing to open a front against the EP just weeks before Malta takes the EU presidency. Instead of seeking consensus from all European institutions, he ignored the same Parliament he once was a member of," the PN said.

I welcome the Council of Ministers' decision to appoint me Member of the European Court of Auditors wef 1.10.16 pic.twitter.com/IHMN3w83lm

— Leo Brincat (@LeoBrincat) September 29, 2016

"The PN insists that Muscat should not go in for the EU presidency with Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi by his side. They are the reason for Malta's bad reputation. Muscat is defending the indefensible."

Brincat had been rejected by the European Parliament, by 381 votes against, 229 in favour and 58 abstentions, during the second step of the three in the nomination process. Although no official reasons were given for the result of the secret ballot, the European People's Party had released an uncompromising statement about the nomination, criticising Malta's choice to send a former minister instead of a technocrat as its candidate.

"The EPP group thinks that the Maltese government has a heavy baggage and the least it could have done is to nominate an independent and competent candidate, not a former minister,” the statement said.

“The fact that the Maltese government chose to sell Maltes /EU citizenship, in a non-transparent way, raises big question marks. The way this government handled the Panama Papers scandal continues to cement our strong-held beliefs that this government is on the wrong track. These two episodes are doing untold damage to Malta’s reputation and we cannot in our wildest dreams accept Mr Brincat as member of the European Court of Auditors, out of all institutions, as he was until recently part and parcel of this government. For the sake of Malta’s interests we implore Prime Minister Joseph Muscat to see sense and nominate an independent and competent candidate.” 

Before reaching that stage, Brincat had only just cleared the first hurdle, the Budgetary Control Committee, which had accepted him by 11 votes in favour, nine against and one abstention. It was at this stage that, six months ago, Malta's previous candidate Toni Abela had been rejected by 17 votes against and nine in favour.

The European Council of Ministers, which is empowered to overrule the EP's rejection, is expected to formally confirm Brincat's nomination when it meets on September 29.