A marathon session will be held in parliament on Monday to debate the PN's motion of no confidence in the government, after an agreement was reached by both sides of the House in tonight's House Business Committee session.

The agreement was confirmed by the Speaker of the house, Dr Anglu Farrugia.

The debate, sparked by Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi and OPM Chief of  Staff Keith Schembri's holdings in Panama, will be held on Monday 18 April starting at 9am and going on until 10pm, without time for Parliamentary Questions. The opposition is asking for the government's resignation after the Prime Minister failed to take any action against Dr Mizzi and Mr Schembri in the wake of the Panana Papers revelation.

The agreement was reached after much to and fro, but it was eventually settled amicably. The major sticking points were obligations that certain ministers, including the Prime Minister, needed to observe.

Government Whip Godfrey Farrugia initially insisted that the motion shoud be discussed at the first opportunity, and this is the coming Friday because the Prime Minister is abroad along with the Deputy Prime Minister. "We are proposing that this will be discussed on Friday 15 April starting at 9am in one sitting," he said.

PN Deputy Leader, Mario de Marco said that he is ready to accept that it is discussed on Friday due to the Prime Minister being abroad. However 29 MPs had showed their interest in addressing the House, "so asking us to do it all over one sitting is unacceptable. The opposition's proposal is that it starts on Monday and then goes on, if necessary on Tuesday and Wednesday. If this is acceptable to the government, then the opposition is ready to postpone."

Dr Farrugia pointed out that the opposition needs to realise that even though the motion is very important; it is not the be all and end all. There are 18 open laws and a number of other issues which need to be discussed, he said. There is an existing agenda which needs its own priority. So, as such, "when I spoke about one session, I wasn't speaking of a normal three-hour session; it will start at 9am and it will keep going for as long as needs be."

Dr de Marco replied that, understanding that there is an agenda, "it doesn't mean that it must be discussed in an extraordinary session." The counter-proposal is that the parliament meets Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in the mornings to discuss the existing agenda, so that in the evenings, the motion can be debated.

Dr Farrugia reminded the committee that the last time there was a motion of no confidence in a government, the entire debate took 12 hours across four sittings. The proposal to have the session on Friday is to give the debate its own time. "Shouldn't 12 hours be enough for this debate to be concluded?"

Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Deborah Schembri said that she could not understand why the opposition did not want to have the session on Friday, which is sooner and will address the supposed urgency of the situation. Instead, the opposition seems to be ready to let the issue take longer than needed and wait until next week over a number of days when the government is ready to give the opposition the opportunity to discuss everything openly.

Dr de Marco said that, if the government wants the motion to be discussed tomorrow, the opposition is ready to start the debate. Speaking of the issue of urgency, "if it was so urgent for the government, then the Prime Minister wouldn't have gone abroad."

Dr Farrugia, during a period of consultation, looked at the proposed dates of Monday to Wednesday by Dr de Marco and it was concluded that there are areas of particular importance related to the upcoming EU Presidency, which are also a priority and cannot be pushed back too far. Dr Farrugia said that Friday was seen as the first opportunity to give the opposition a democratic way to debate the issue in one sitting. Taking into consideration that a large number of members of the government have appointments abroad, Dr Schembri said that it isn't fair to frivolously interfere with governmental work.

Dr de Marco, in reaction to the argument of the days taken for the previous motion of no confidence in a government, said that the government at the time had the same kind of obligations. 

Speaker Dr Anglu Farrugia, said that, at this point, given that it seems like the parties are at an impasse, it would make sense just to make a decision based on procedure.

Dr de Marco asked if it would be possible to start on Friday at 9am, with the potential of continuing on Monday and Tuesday. 

Government whip Dr Farrugia proposed that the debate starts on Wednesday evening with a potentially longer sitting than usual, with a continuation on Friday morning. 

But it was later decided that there should be one sitting on Monday with the opposition proposing a time starting at 9am and continuing on until 9pm. The counter proposal from the government's side from Dr Farrugia was of giving each side of the room seven hours, with a total of 14 hours, thus the session should end at 11pm.

It was at this point that the agreement to waive time for parliamentary questions was reached, thus reducing an hour from the total time.

Earlier today:

The Prime Minister on Sunday said that the Nationalist Party motion of no confidence in the government will be discussed in Parliament on Friday, but the date has not yet been established officially.

Some fireworks are expected at the House Business Committee meeting to be held this evening, as the Opposition is insisting that the motion is discussed either Tuesday or Wednesday.

If it cannot be inserted in the usual days allotted to Parliament, then the government should consult with the Opposition on the day when such an important motion is debated, the opposition is arguing.

Last week, an hour after the PN presented the vote of no confidence motion, the government issued a statement that it is prepared to hold the debate “next week” (which would be this week). But it knew that the PM was to be abroad between Monday and Thursday, so it was technically offering only one day – Friday, which is not a normal day when Parliament meets.

This has seemingly irked the Opposition, especially since the government took a decision without consulting it on a motion it (the PN) had presented.