Arnold Cassola, Maltese Green MP in the Italian Parliament said: “If Romano Prodi has commented that Malta should not have as many seats as Slovenia, then he is completely wrong on various counts. First of all because Slovenia has eight seats and not six.”

In second place, the principle of minimum six seats and maximum 96 was agreed upon in June 2004, with Silvio Berlusconi signing the deal for Italy, and re-agreed and reaffirmed at last June’s EU summit, with Romano Prodi himself signing this agreement.

As regards Italy’s distribution of seats, instead, “Prodi is right... Italy should be given the same number of seats as Britain and France (73), not only because the three countries have always had the same number of seats since 1979 but also because Italy has two million Italians living on EU soil, outside Italy, and these are Italian citizens.

The global solution is: minimum, six seats, maximum 96; with Italy, France, and Britain (who have always had the same number of seats since 1979) 73 each.

“Malta has had five seats in the European parliament because of the egoism of the Fenech Adami administration, which put the egoistic interests of the PN before that of the country, and therefore gave up the possibility of getting six seats both in Nice in December 1999 and in Copenhagen in December 2002.

“Prime Minister Gonzi should now make up for the egoism of his predecessor’s administration and act in a forceful way: if the minimum six seats is not confirmed in the decisive Intergovernmental Conference next week in Lisbon, Malta should use its power of veto to veto the whole Treaty,” concluded Arnold Cassola.