Opinion: Robert’s choice, our problem

EU commissioners are the most senior officials in the EU executive.  They’re like ministers in a national government – except their decisions affect close to 500 million people within the EU and hundreds of millions more outside it.

That’s why every country sends its most seasoned politician, often with decades of experience in ministerial posts.

Estonia sent its former prime minister Kaja Kallas. Belgium was considering sending its own former prime minister Sophie Wilmes.

Lithuania nominated former prime minister Andreas Kubilius. Spain is sending Professor Teresa Ribera, a heavyweight deputy prime minister and minister for ecological transition.

Malta is sending 35-year-old Glenn Micallef.

As soon as Abela became prime minister in January 2020, Micallef was made European Affairs adviser to the prime minister – at the age of 29.

Micallef only has a first degree.  He pursued no postgraduate studies.  He never studied or worked outside Malta. He never competed for a job.

He was just handpicked and given roles for which he could not possibly have been competent, but things didn’t stop there.

By November 2020, Robert Abela appointed him his head of secretariat, another term for chief of staff, a term forever tainted by the previous incumbent – the notoriously dodgy Keith Schembri, now facing a catalogue of criminal charges but who incredibly continues to run his businesses unfettered and unencumbered.

Robert Abela has now decided to nominate Micallef as Malta’s next EU Commissioner.  Micallef has no experience in politics.  He’s never run a ministry, even in tiny Malta. He’s never really held any position of accountable responsibility.  He’s just been given one cushy job after another from the very minute he stepped out of university with just his first degree.

Austria is lining up its Finance Minister, Cyprus its former Health, Agriculture and Education and Culture Minister, Czechia its Industry and Trade Minister, Denmark its minister for global climate policy and development, Finland its Minister of public administration and local government, former Minister of Education and Science, and Transport Minister.

France is nominating its Economy Minister Thierry Breton, a professor at Harvard Business School and former France Telecom CEO. Ireland is sending Michael McGrath. its Minister for Finance and former Minister for Public expenditure. Portugal, too, is sending its Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque.

Sweden nominated its Minister for EU Affairs and Nordic cooperation. Croatia, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia are retaining their current European commissioners.

And Robert Abela sends a 35-year-old with no experience whatsoever in holding office. Abela is sending him to the lion’s den where he’ll be grilled by MEPs, who will be worrying about how they could trust such an inexperienced youngster, still wet behind the ears, with one of Europe’s top jobs.

Lithuania and Estonia are sending their former prime ministers. Couldn’t Abela have sent his friend and former boss Joseph Muscat as EU Commissioner? Oh no, he couldn’t. That one’s criminally charged with bribery, criminal association, and money laundering, among other things.

After the John Dalli debacle, Europe will think we keep sending our rotten scoundrels to Brussels to get them out of our way. Or maybe they think we’re all rotten scoundrels. And who could blame them?

Dalli crashed and burned like a lousy firework – and his embarrassing EU exit still haunts Malta’s reputation in the EU commissioner stakes.  Former deputy prime minister Chris Fearne, who should have been Malta’s nominee, also faces charges of fraud, misappropriation and abuse of office.

So Abela’s solution is to send an amateur who’s cocky enough to accept the nomination. Presumptuous, foolhardy, overconfident doesn’t even start to describe Abela’s nominee.

He thinks taking on an EU commissioner role is as easy as being president of Labour student organisation, Pulse. But then he may be right.  If Helena Dalli managed, anybody could. And she’s throwing every spoke in the wheel to sabotage Micallef’s nomination, according to media reports. But that’s “another lie about Helena”, according to her husband, Patrick.

Helena Dalli is desperate to keep her Commissioner post.  She really wanted to be President of Malta – that’s far less hassle than being EU Commissioner. No lengthy boring meetings, no real decisions to take, no scrutiny and criticism of your competence at San Anton.

When her plans to become President were scuppered, she couldn’t contain her bitterness and spite. But instead of blaming the Labour officials responsible, she blamed the PN.  “A small nucleus of people within the PN excluded certain people [from being president] for very unfair reasons,” she moaned on live television.

Now Dalli is allegedly using her contacts in Brussels to mount pressure on Robert Abela to withdraw Glenn Micallef’s nomination and retain her as Commissioner for a second term.

Reports surfaced that Malta was asked to change its nominee.  Media houses were secretly briefed about Micallef’s inexperience and that Abela was being put under pressure by Ursula von der Leyen. But Dalli claimed she wasn’t sabotaging Micallef.

If Abela were to cave in to that pressure and retain Dalli, Malta would still end up the loser.  One diplomat reportedly commented that Dalli was given a “borderline useless portfolio” and “having her for a second term would just ensure Malta is effectively irrelevant within the Commission”.

Whether Abela chooses to keep Dalli or stick to his nominee, Malta will get another insignificant portfolio at the EU. Nominating the youngest and most inexperienced candidate out of all 27 nations smacks of Labour’s utter desperation. Is there nobody better among Labour’s fold?