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European Parliament approves Malta's sixth seat
Real estate news By Ivan Camilleri
Fri, Oct 12, 2007
Malta was yesterday assured of an additional MEP from 2009 onwards as the European Parliament gave its consent to a new distribution of seats between the EU's 27 member states. MEPs approved the new allocation as co-drafted by French MEP Alain Lamassoure and Romanian MEP Adrian Severin with 378 votes in favour, 154 against and 109 abstentions. At the same time, MEPs proposed that the agreement will again be revised, well in advance of the beginning of the 2014-2019 legislative term, in order to take account of demographic changes and "avoid the traditional political horse-trading between member states".
With the new system, Malta will now be at par with Luxembourg, Cyprus and Estonia, which will all have six seats as from 2009. Malta is the only member state with only five MEPs. Yesterday's vote was marred by a polemic stirred by Italian Prime Minister and former Commission President Romano Prodi while in Brussels. Quoted by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, Mr Prodi lamented with Italian MEPs that he could not understand how Malta was given six seats, the same number as Slovenia.
Malta's sixth seat was acquired following intense lobbying by the Maltese government over the past years to establish a minimum threshold of MEPs representing a country in the European Parliament. Last June, EU leaders agreed unanimously that this threshold should be established at six MEPs.
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