Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, the former Prime Minister and Labour leader now leading the eurosceptic Campaign for National Independence (CNi), described Opposition MPs as being either politically ignorant or opting for political convenience, in view of the fact that the Labour Party has already declared its parliamentary support for the EU fiscal treaty.

While urging MPs from both sides to vote against ratification, he said that if on the government side MPs felt obliged to toe the Prime Minister’s line, the same could not be said about the Opposition and thus he still expects Labour MPs to stand up and be counted.

Addressing a news conference at the CNi premises in Valletta, Dr Mifsud Bonnici highlighted several reasons which, according to him, will set a dangerous precedent for the EU Commission to be in a position to amend Malta’s, and other signatory states’, Constitution unilaterally. “This is totally undemocratic and renders the national parliaments of EU member states signing the treaty irrelevant, if not at the mercy of Brussels,” the CNi leader claimed.

Regarding the option of consulting the electorate through a referendum, he said that this is surely a more democratic way to deal with this whole issue, provided that voters have a clear picture of the implications involved.

According to Dr Mifsud Bonnici, right now not even MPs know exactly what this treaty is all about and he challenged them to put forward their arguments in favour.

He said that contrary to what is being outlined in the treaty, this will hinder economic growth and job creation as it limits government spending. It will also fail on the social cohesion aspect as it includes a series of austerity measures that will hurt the most vulnerable, with Greece being a good example.

On the technical level, the former Labour leader said that some aspects of the treaty are by far too vague and leave ample room for the Commission to interpret sensitive aspects according to its interests only. Among these are one-off payments or temporary measures. From now on, these have to be excluded from the annual structural balance, but adhering countries still have to limit their national debt to 60% of the gross domestic product (GDP). He also claimed that countries will be obliged to adhere to a set of medium-term objectives, but it is up to the Commission to decide the actual timeframe.

“This new treaty is a minefield, and finance ministers will be totally at the mercy of the EU,” warned the CNi leader.

He also criticised the targets set out by this treaty as too optimistic and said countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal in reality will never make it, even in 20 years’ time. “If we take into consideration that very few countries managed to reach the targets of the Maastricht Treaty of having the annual deficit below 3% of GDP, how can we expect this target to be lowered up to 0.5% of GDP? Not even France and Germany managed to do it. This is a bridge too far to cross,” claimed Dr Mifsud Bonnici.

Another objection put forward was the creation of a special mechanism at national level in case deviations started to arise from the set financial targets at the beginning of the year. This, together with a special body designed to monitor financial and economic performance, will be in the Commission’s discretion, and outside the government’s control.

The CNi leader said that his strongest objection was about the way the EU Commission, which is an unelected body, was pretending to have the final say in the way these amendments are entrenched in Constitutions, to the extent of having the right to take legal proceedings against national governments, if deemed necessary by the Commission.

In view of all this, Parliament is obliged to vote against the ratification of this treaty, or else it will end up being usurped by the EU Commission.

“No MP should vote in favour of this treaty. The EU is negating democracy,” urged the CNi leader. He said that during accession talks, no mention was made of a scenario in which important decisions are taken by an unelected few in Brussels without popular consent.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that opposition to this treaty was gaining momentum abroad and besides the UK, which was the only country to opt out initially, questions are now being asked by the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, while France’s Socialist Presidential candidate François Hollande promised to renegotiate the whole treaty if elected. Besides, Ireland is putting this whole issue to a popular vote in a referendum.