“This is a very historic moment,” he told the press. “It was very difficult to reach this agreement, and there were moments where every country had to arrive at a compromise.”

As a result of the new EU Constitution, Malta has gained an additional seat in the European Parliament. But the breakthrough this week has much wider implications for the future of the European Union and its individual member States, which seem to have put aside their differences over the thorny question of qualified majority voting.

During question time, Dr Gonzi was asked by The Malta Independent on Sunday journalist Charlot Zahra whether the fact that there was “consensus between all political forces in Malta on the need for a minimum of six seats” was instrumental to the success of negotiations.

In his reply, Dr Gonzi said that up until last Thursday, the issue of a sixth seat for Malta had not yet appeared in any draft Constitution.

It was only now, after years of intense negotiations, that the matter has finally been settled. But now that the sixth seat has arrived, everybody is lining up to claim ownership.

“My government has been insisting that Malta had a right for six seats not only now, but for months and years. I would have been much more pleased if the support (for this position) had been clear, strong and unequivocal from the very beginning.”

The question of the sixth seat first arose at the Copenhagen European Council, when Malta negotiated the accession treaty. At the end of the summit Malta was left with five seats, while other small countries such as Luxembourg and Cyprus, both with comparable populations, came away with six.

Pressure mounted as the first draft of the EU Constitution, as established by the Convention on the Future of Europe, had established a minimum of only four seats, thus raising the possibility that Malta might even lose the fifth seat it has secured in Copenhagen. As the debate progressed and the eventuality of getting a Constitution at all appeared increasingly jeopardised over repeated failure to agree on a workable voting system, the question of parliamentary representation for smaller States seemed to recede into the background. For this reason, the sudden re-emergence of the issue at this late stage, especially after two electoral defeats in quick succession, comes across as a victory for Gonzi’s government at a time when PN victories are thin on the ground.

However, a totally different point of view was expressed by Opposition leader Dr Alfred Sant at a press conference held yesterday evening at Labour Party headquarters in Hamrun.

Digressing from the press conference’s official subject – the local council elections (see pages 4,5) – Dr Sant argued that the whole issue of the sixth seat was “a waste of two years”. His reasoning was that Malta had been entitled to a sixth seat in the EP ever since the Nice summit in 2000. However, because the then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami unaccountably chose to leave the summit early by private jet, Malta missed out on the opportunity that was extended to other small nation States. As a result, it had to waste time and precious resources to fight for what should have been ours by right.

Contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday, PN international secretary Jason Azzopardi, who accompanied Dr Gonzi to Brussels, concurred with the Prime Minister’s verdict on the sixth seat.

“On a personal level, I feel vindicated that our persistence has been rewarded. Over the past two years we had received numerous reactions along the lines of “forget it” or “you’re dreaming”. Today, however, the Nationalist government has been proved right. The prospect of a sixth seat for Malta was never out of reach, although it was very difficult to achieve.”

Asked specifically about whether “consensus” existed prior to this week, Dr Azzopardi replied in diplomatic terms. “I recall an episode of Xarabank some two years ago when I had expressed optimism about the chances of Malta obtaining a sixth seat. There were exponents of the Labour Party on the same show who had ridiculed the idea at the time. More recently, others also criticised the government for ‘giving up’ on the sixth seat.”

Dr Azzopardi’s views, like those of the Prime Minister and Opposition leader, conflict slightly with the MLP international secretary’s version of events. According to Joe Mifsud, the Malta Labour Party was and always had been fully supportive of Malta getting a sixth seat.

“The Malta Labour Party has always fought for what is in the interest of the Maltese people, and this issue was no exception.”, said Mr Mifsud in a comment to The Malta Independent on Sunday. “We have always argued that Malta had always been entitled to six seats, but that it was the government itself which missed out on the opportunity.

“In more recent months, we made our support for the issue public. When meeting with their colleagues in the PES, both Dr Sant and Dr George Vella, on behalf of the Labour Party, always tried to convince them of the validity of Malta’s position.

“Our last effort was made this week at the meeting of the PES in Brussels, where we raised the issue with at least three Prime Ministers, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic.

“We did this without any fanfares or drum rolls; after all, what we do is for the good of the country, not of the government. We don’t expect any thanks.”

Meanwhile, on another level, Dr Jason Azzopardi explained the reasons why the process has taken so many years.

“It wasn’t easy. In fact, it remained difficult right up to last Friday.

“The reason for the difficulty was that there were other countries which used our plea as an argument to justify additional seats for their own representatives; there was a fear that this might stir up a hornet’s nest, and create another reason for disagreement over the Constitution.

“However, the Prime Minister was very adamant on this point: there was no connection between our request and those of other countries.

“In our case, the issue of the sixth seat was one of ‘functional viability’. To have effective representation in the EP, which includes parliamentary committees, it is almost impossible with only five members. With six, it is workable.”

In this respect, Dr Azzopardi said, the acquisition of an additional seat in the EP was not just a victory for the Maltese people, but in the end also a victory for common sense.