The chairman of the Campaign for National Independence, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, said yesterday that the European Union’s Reform Treaty, which has to be ratified by parliaments in all member states, is a carbon copy of the proposed EU Constitution which stalled when the electorates in France and The Netherlands voted against it in a referendum.

He said that since the two were practically identical, CNi’s objections to the Reform Treaty were similar to the objections it had to the draft EU Constitution.

He explained that after the EU Constitution was dropped, because of the “No” votes, there had been a reflection period during which the union held consultation sessions with EU member states. He said these consultations were futile because whatever was included in the draft constitution had been reproduced in the Reform Treaty. He said the word “constitution” was completely removed.

“This Reform Treaty is an exercise through which Europeans are being fooled because there is nothing different from what was proposed in 2004 and which stalled because it was turned down in France and The Netherlands. It is packaged differently but the content is the same,” said the former Prime Minister.

Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that if it was true that support for the EU was on the increase, then why was the EU scared of having the Reform Treaty judged by the people in each member state through a referendum? He said it was evident that the EU did not want to take the risk of another stalled document.

In answer to a question, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said that the principal objection to the Reform Treaty was that it was considerably reducing and undermining the parliamentary democracy of EU member states.

He explained that at present there were decisions that could only be taken when 55 per cent of member states and 65 per cent of the EU population voted in favour. But this treaty increased the areas where only a qualified majority was needed.

“If the Maltese government does not agree with a decision taken by the EU, it has to implement it just the same,” he said. Asked by The Malta Independent for an example of these areas, Dr Mifsud Bonnici said there were 50 and too many to mention just a few. When pressed for a reply, he mentioned irregular migration as being one of them.

One of the differences between the EU Constitution and the Reform Treaty was to do with the internal market. In the constitution, the internal market was “where competition is free and undistorted” but in the Reform Treaty, this description was omitted, following pressure by France.

Putting this change into context, Dr Mifsud Bonnici gave the Malta Drydocks as an example. He said that, following an agreement with the EU, after the end of December 2008 the company would not be able to receive more state aid because that would be distorting the market. There was also a limit on the work done and the number of workers it could employ.

“Now that this has been removed, the Maltese government can decide not to implement this agreement with the EU. Malta should insist that the agreement does not hold any longer. If the EU does not agree, then the Maltese government can bypass this by changing the Malta Drydocks from a commercial company to a government department,” he said.

Asked whether he was indirectly saying that the country should continue subsidising the Malta Drydocks, Dr Mifsud Bonnici replied in the affirmative. “We will be keeping alive the university of crafts,” he said.

During yesterday’s press conference, Dr Mifsud Bonnici also spoke about EU funds and insisted that, according to CNi’s calculation, Malta is paying around Lm3 million more to the EU that it is receiving from the EU.

When asked to elaborate, he said that the country paid around Lm54 million to the EU when it was receiving only Lm51 million. “As we said prior to membership, it shows that EU membership is increasing the strain on the country’s finances. We are paying more than we receive. We challenge the government to show us otherwise,” he said.