Malta And Cyprus 'Accidentally' Left Out Of Prague Talks

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

17 September 2003

An apparent bureaucratic oversight led to the accidental omission of Malta and Cyprus from a meeting between the smaller European states, held in Prague on September 1 to discuss the draft EU constitution.

“There was absolutely no political reason for leaving Malta out of the meeting,” reassured Jiri Slavik, the Counsellor on EU Affairs and Malta at the Czech embassy. “Malta and the Czech Republic are like-minded countries and there was no political reason for leaving your country out of the meeting. It was basically an oversight. Our minister has already apologised personally to the Maltese Foreign Minister at Riva del Garda last week,” Slavik told the Malta Independent, explaining that "improvised decisions" and changes to the programme at short notice caused the "logistical mistake".

A spokesman for Cyprus' representation to the EU told the European media that the Czech government had also reassured the Cypriot authorities that this mistake was not going to be repeated.

Although a Maltese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman stressed that the government considered the matter closed after the Czech Minister apologised to Foreign Minister Joe Borg, the issue is bound to have some political mileage with the anti-EU Labour opposition. "I hope that’s not the shape of things to come," the Labour Party's spokesman on EU Affairs, Evarist Bartolo, was quoted by the Independent as observing.

However, a report from the EU Observer suggests that there may have been more behind the alleged "logistical mistake" than the Czech government is letting on. Sources close to the Czech Representation revealed to the news service that the lack of Maltese and Cypriot input into the Convention was a possible factor behind the countries' omission from the talks.

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