Labour MEP Alfred Sant has explained why he abstained on the European Parliament vote on Ukraine, following a story that was published on The Malta Independent newspaper and online today.

Dr Sant said that he abstained for these reasons: “In principle, that the Ukraine and the EU conclude an association agreement between them and which both want to implement is a positive thing. But this needs to be done in the framework of the present geopolitical circumstances.

“I think that it was imprudent that the presentation of this political gesture was carried out now. I am not convinced that enough importance is being given to the interests and desires of the Eastern Ukrainian people.

“The debate in Parliament did not remove my reservations, which are strong because there is still a serious threat of a war in Europe seeing what is happening in the Ukraine. I agree wholeheartedly with what was said by Foreign Minister George Vella that the EU could have treated the issue better from the start, that is when it opened negotiations for an economic and commercial association without taking into consideration the geo-strategic and diplomatic impact of what it was doing. The consequences of this continued to be ignored. There should have been a negotiation process that kept this dimension in consideration.

“With regard to sanctions, unfortunately we are in a phase in which the parties involved try to influence the other side through economic sanctions that hit the respective peoples, and on the other hand also carry out on the ground military action that complicate the situation.

“In a delicate moment like this, more prudence is needed, and I did not think that it formed part of the triumphalism that we saw in the EP last Tuesday.”

Shock as Alfred Sant abstains on Ukraine agreement

 

‘No government dictates how MEPs vote’

 

Asked for a reaction, a spokesperson for the office of the Prime Minister said that Dr Joseph Muscat had signed the EU-Ukraine association agreement during the European Council meeting, so the government welcomes it.

When asked if this meant that the government is distancing itself from the way Dr Sant voted, the spokesperson replied: “No government can dictate how its MEPs vote.”