Opposition MP calls for official recognition of online petitions in Parliament

Opposition MP Robert Cutajar has presented to the House a motion proposing amendments to the Standing Orders to allow online petitions to be recognised by Parliament.

"Contrary to what happens in the European Parliament and other foreign instintutions, there is nothing in our laws which states that online petitions can be viewed and included by Parliament," Cutajar said this evening in parliament.

Pointing out that the matter had never been presented or discussed in parliament, Cutajar said both Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and Transport Minister Joe Mizzi had been notified about this petition in waiting.

A former Mellieha mayor, Cutajar said he would also be putting forward in parliament a petition on the utilisation of the Mellieha sports facilities near the local primary school.

If the motion is approved and the amendments go through, there is the possibility that another petition, made by Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola, could also be brought before the Maltese parliament. Metsola's petition, led in the European Parliament, is about the berthing of the LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk Bay.