Leo Brincat had pledged to “respect” the European Parliament’s decision on his nomination to the European Court of Auditors, but instead chose to plough on to the third stage in which the European Council can overturn the EP result.

The European Parliament last Tuesday overwhelmingly voted against his nomination for a place on the European Court of Auditors.

Replying to questions during the Committee on Budgetary Control grilling on 5 September, Mr Brincat had said he would respect the EP vote. But after the crushing “no” - Malta’s nominee was rejected by the European Parliament by 381 votes against, 229 in favour and 58 abstentions – the candidacy was not withdrawn and the matter will now be decided by the European Council.

Prior to the hearing, Mr Brincat submitted written answers to a questionnaire by the EP budgetary committee.

Mr Brincat had been asked: “will you withdraw your candidacy if Parliament’s opinion on your appointment as Member of the Court is unfavourable?”

In response to that question, Mr Brincat had written the following: “I would review my nomination, taking into full account the deliberations that would have taken place and reasons adduced by the Committee for its recommendation”.

The nomination had been barely approved by the committee with 11 votes in favour, 9 against and one abstention. It was revealed by The Malta Independent that PL MEP Alfred Sant, who is not one of the Committee’s substitutes, somehow managed to find himself a seat on the Committee for Leo Brincat’s vote.

In his hearing before the budgetary committee, Mr Brincat was asked a very direct question by Finnish MEP Petri Sarvamaa: “You have indicated that regardless of our opinion in this committee, and later in the plenary, that you would continue with your candidacy, regardless of what our stands would be. The question is this.  Are you ready to give us your commitment now, that you would respect the committee’s decision and if there would still be some reviewing, then at least that you would respect the will of the whole parliament as it will be indicated in the plenary vote?”

In response Mr Brincat said the following “In addition to what I stated in my reply to the questionnaire, you asked me whether I will respect parliament’s views? Yes, I will respect what parliament decides and I will obviously leave things in your good hands to assess me on two important criteria, competence and integrity.”

S&D MEP Ana Gomes said that she cannot imagine how the Maltese government would choose to persist with its nomination of Leo Brincat for the European Court of Auditors, or that Council would “dare go against the European Parliament’s view” given the sheer number of votes against.

PN reaction

In reaction to the above story, the Opposition said it is ready to support a new nomination to the European Court of Auditors as long as the person is not associated with Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, it has said in a statement.

Leo Brincat could not be that person, they said, “as he voted in favour of Konrad Mizzi in the vote of no confidence, and this is not compatible with the functions of an ECA member, whose work is to uncover scandals and not hide them”.

The Opposition is asking Leo Brincat to be a gentleman, keeping his word given to the EU Parliamentary Committee on Budget control.

“Malta must not take the EU Presidency with this hanging over our head just because the Prime Minister wants to keep his friends in Castille”.

PL reaction

The Labour Party said that if the opposition was genuine, it would have backed both candidates proposed by government and would have tried to gather support from their European political group.

“For the second time, the Opposition broke the tradition that has been in place since 2003, that the opposition works with government in the interest of Malta when a person is nominated for a European position”.

The PL argued that they supported candidates like Josef Bonnici, Louis Galea, John Dalli and Tonio Borg, all former PN ministers facing certain allegations.

“In no case was the Opposition at that time consulted”.

The PL argued that the PN takes decisions according to whether or not they are in their partisan interests. “The people will judge”

If one looks at Leo Brincat’s questionnare that he sent to the Committee on Budgetary Controll, as well as what he was asked in the hearing, Mr Brincat said that he will respect this decision if it is based on the criteria of his competance and integrity, the PL said. "In Leo Brincat’s case, there was nobody who brought up the issue of his personal integrity or competance neither before or after the Committee vote”.

“Now Leo Brincat will obey the decision of the European Council that has a decisive role in approving member state nominations”.