EPP members David Casa and Simon Busuttil and PES members Joe Muscat and Louis Grech gave their comments to this newspaper after their vote in the morning session which saw Josep Borrell voted in as European Parliament President with a majority vote of 388 votes out of a total of 647 valid votes cast. 53 votes were void.

Bronislaw Geremek came second with 208 votes while Francis Wurtz propped up the list with 51 votes.

PES member John Attard Montalto missed the morning vote after a bout of food poisoning.

The four MEPs approached by this newspaper also dismissed the undercurrent comment that the newly-formed parliament was not organised and over-inflated. Mr Muscat and Mr Grech said: “From an organisational point of view, there were no problems at all. The agenda was clear and we knew what we had to do. The thing is that you have to make your own headway and look after yourself. But at least we had the PES meetings beforehand which steered us in the right direction.”

Mr Grech and Mr Muscat also spoke about their hopes of being appointed to the various committees, where the real work of the EP takes place. “The PES knows that it will chair six committees and we have a good idea of which they will be. We have identified, as we were requested to, our two preferences of which committees we would like to be on,” they said.

Although they declined to identify which their second preferences were, they said that they were still of national importance to Malta.

Dr Busuttil and Mr Casa pointed out that the EPP will be chairing eight committees, while the rest will be chaired by other groups. “The EPP will be chairing some very important committees such as environment, foreign affairs, regional policy and the budget.

“The EPP has shown faith in us and we have been given indications that we will be included,” they said.

Mr Casa said that two weeks after the EP elections, Malta’s five MEPs met Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and the issue of committee preferences was discussed. “You can sit on a maximum of two and that means we had a maximum capacity of 10. We reached agreement on nine of them, so that is a good start,” said Dr Busuttil.

In fact, there must be an element of cooperation between the MEPs. Dr Busuttil said: “We have to. It was a bit mind-boggling for us to vote for Mr Borrell because he is a socialist. This was agreed between PES and the EPP and it is far away from the way we are used to doing things in Malta.

“We voted for Mr Borrell so we hope they reciprocate today and vote for Commission Presidency candidate Barroso,” said Dr Busuttil and Mr Casa.

Mr Grech and Mr Muscat were in agreement. “Being here has allowed us to realise that we must work together for Malta as a whole. Outgoing President Pat Cox had warned us not to come to parliament waving our party and national flags and he is right. We need to lobby hard and to work together to get the best for Malta.”

Mr Casa and Dr Busuttil echoed these sentiments: “We cannot come here on a wave of nationalism. We are not here to represent the PN or the MLP, we are here to represent Malta. If we forget that, we will end up doing what we do back home and enter partisan politics mode. If we did, we would make Malta a laughing stock and do more harm than good. We should schedule regular meetings,” said Mr Casa.

Dr Busuttil said: “The alliance in the voting in of the EP President was a novelty for us, but that’s the way things go here, you give and take. Today we gave and tomorrow we hope our colleagues give a bit back.”

The four MEPs also gave their first impressions of being active MEPs. Dr Busuttil said: “It was like being a schoolboy on your first day at school. But the experience was tremendous. Very interesting and a hive of activity.”

Mr Casa said: “It was a novel experience but very interesting. It’s a whole new level to be working on.”

Mr Grech said: “It was a very colourful day. It was very interesting and the diversity of it is impressive.”

Mr Muscat said: “It was a great experience to see so many great politicians sitting in the same parliament as me. It was a great experience.”

President's first words

Mr Borrell thanked the other candidates for taking part and looked forward to working with them in a spirit of genuine and positive cooperation to make best use of their experience.

He said he was happy to work with those who had not voted for him, but he thanked those who had given him their support, in particular the Socialist group which had nominated him. He said the large and stable majority he had received was a good sign for the institution.

He paid tribute to the work of his predecessor, Pat Cox, who had, he said, had a brilliant presidency.

He also gave his thanks to all the MEPs who had taken part in the Convention and in the IGC, before finally giving a particular welcome to the MEPs from the 10 new Member States, who, he hoped, would soon be joined by members from Romania and Bulgaria.

This was a moment full of emotion, he said, and his role was a huge responsibility. His tremendous passion for Europe and democracy would be united to meet this one challenge.

The President said he would make a full statement of his plans in September, after time for consultation with the various leaders in parliament. For now, he mentioned the installation of the new Commission, the plans for the new Financial Perspective, the Stability and Growth Pact, the Euro-Mediterranean relationship and the Middle East as key issues for the future as well as the ratification of the Constitution, which the parliament would have to follow closely.

Mr Borrell was then congratulated by Commission President Romano Prodi, who called in particular for the parliament to fulfil its role in bringing the EU institutions closer to the lives of the citizens of Europe.