The Malta Labour Party will, as from tonight, discuss two important issues at an extraordinary general conference. The first is its plan for a social and economic regeneration of the country and the second is its stand on the ratification of the European Constitution.

Writing in l-orizzont yesterday, MLP leader Alfred Sant said that the regeneration plan is by far the more important of the two subjects on the agenda. In it, Labour is proposing several initiatives which it thinks could give a new lease of life to the country.

Yet, the larger part of Dr Sant’s article was devoted to why delegates should be voting “yes with reservations” on the EU Constitution.

It means that, while there is no doubt as to what the general conference will do when it will debate the economic and social plan Labour has been working on for the past year, the differences that have emerged within the Labour camp on the European Constitution indicate that it will be the hotter topic of the two.

The MLP executive as well as the parliamentary group are pushing for a “yes with reservations”, coming up with a list of five conditions that were agreed upon within the party structure.

This position has spurred the launch of a new Labour movement, the Moviment Laburista Popolari which, when going public for the first time on 7 June, accused the Malta Labour Party of complicity with the Nationalist government on the issue of the ratification. It is urging Labour delegates to vote “no”.

Apart from this, the party has had to contend with another two organisations which are encouraging MLP delegates not to vote in favour. The Campaign for National Independence, spearheaded by former Labour Prime Minister Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, has for long been giving its reasons as to why the European Constitution should not be ratified. Equally, even the Front Maltin Inqumu is against the ratification.

In his article on l-orizzont yesterday, Dr Sant explained what led to the MLP executive and parliamentary group to opt for such a stand. While insisting that he still believes that the partnership option was still the best Malta could have obtained in its relations with the EU, he added that one could not turn back the clock.

“If our country had to embark on a road to leave the EU, now that we are members, we would be creating problems for many workers, pensioners and youths…problems that are by far bigger than those (we would face) as members, once the people voted for membership,” he wrote.

In a nutshell, Dr Sant reconfirmed that Labour’s position after the April 2003 election – which resolved the EU membership issue after the people had already voted “yes” in a referendum a month earlier – would be to work to obtain the best possible advantages from membership while mitigating, as much as possible, the disadvantages.

But Labour’s position goes beyond this. The MLP has realised that if it persists in being negative on EU issues as it was prior to membership, there is a good chance that all that it could gain from other political topics could be lost. Opposition to the Constitution ratification process would be perceived as Labour still being anchored to the past, and therefore its chances of winning the next general election would be reduced.

Since the 2003 national polls, the MLP has done better than the Nationalists in three elections – two concerning local councils and the other to elect Malta’s representatives in the European Parliament. A negative response to the EU Constitution would throw Labour back.

And so, as from tonight, Labour delegates will be convening in Hamrun to decide, just one week before the issue will be brought up in Parliament.