Now that Mr. Karmenu Vella has passed his lengthy 'rigorous interview" for the position of an EU commissioner, which he secured, it is time to reflect a little on what has been going on these past months and attempt to unearth the stories behind the story. Unlike the previous commissioner Dr. Tonio Borg, Vella was spared any crass mis-characterisation aimed at destroying his reputation. As a politician, Vella too, like all politicians, has his grey areas but these did not feature in any away during his interview. Except from groups from the radical left, he did not have to suffer inflammatory opinions. Clearly, he was coached well with the result that he was capable of maintaining a meaningful dialogue with his interviewers and the audience throughout the entire proceedings. He gave a good performance. What comes next, perhaps, is not a matter of opinion; the portfolio given to Vella has little to do with his field of expertise. In this whole process there was a tangential event, which has not been highlighted by the media. It is clear that Vella had been informed well beforehand that he was going to be given Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.  

Hence, he had time to prepare himself and this reflected during his grilling. But at some point, which must not have been very far before the hearing and just before the President-elect of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker made his nominations, Vella was offered another portfolio; that of the Environment. Here, Vella had less time to prepare and this explains his awkward replies. As these events were unfolding, another piece of interesting news hit the local newspapers; the nomination of commissioners by individual countries was short of females. Juncker wanted at least to have the same number of female commissioners as Barroso. But most countries nominated males. At this point, we were told that Juncker asked Malta to reconsider her position and nominate a female commissioner. This would have meant that Vella would have to be dumped. Malta refused. Despite this refusal, Malta still got a very impressive portfolio. The natural question that follows is: what was Malta offered by Juncker? What can be more important than the present portfolio?

I believe the answer rests in the proposed composition of the Commission itself. Like Malta, Slovenia is a small country but, unlike Malta, Slovenia gave Juncker three names to choose from, one of whom was female; its current Prime Minister. Her name helped Juncker increase the number of his female commissioners. The result was that the commissioner from Slovenia, Alenka Bratušek, ended up being given the portfolio for Energy Union and, more importantly, was appointed one of the Vice-Presidents with the responsibility and leadership over a group of commissioners.  

In reading these facts, one can surmise that had Malta accepted Juncker's proposal to nominate a female commissioner (instead of a male one) our portfolio would have included, besides Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and the Environment, a Vice-Presidency post. Unfortunately, our Government had other plans and refused the offer. Such a refusal altered Juncker's political plans and this may explain why the Environment portfolio failed to be on the circuit of one of Juncker's vice-presidents, causing quite a stir on the left, while Malta lost her chance to have one of the vice-presidency posts.