Yesterday the PM formed the 10th cabinet of ministers and parliamentary secretaries.

After giving what will certainly be remembered as a historic speech in Maltese looking towards the future of Malta in the EU, PM Dr Eddie Fenech Adami, who can now rightly be called the father of a new European Malta, together with foreign minister Dr Joe Borg and the other European heads of state, signed the EU Accession Treaty. The speech touched on various points including relations with our neighbours and the mediterranean, the new opportunities available as an EU member state and our spiritual values.

Many people watched the historic event on big screens at Luqa. Videoclips of the signing may be downloaded from the DOWNLOAD area.

Monday, April 14, 2003

ROME – The tiny archipelago of Malta re-elected Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami's pro-European Union government over the weekend, leaping the last hurdle on the track to joining the EU in 2004 as its least-populous member state.

The general election came days before an EU meeting in Greece in which 10 countries, including Malta, are to sign up for the Union's historic expansion from 15 to 25 members. The opposition Labor Party promised to strike the country's name from that list if it won the vote Saturday, while the governing Nationalist Party championed Malta's enrollment.

“God willing, on Wednesday I will be in Athens to sign the accession treaty,” Fenech Adami said after claiming victory Sunday. He said the vote “brings honor to the country,” adding, “Now the other 24 EU and accession states will look on us with confidence as a stable country.”

Sun Apr 13, 7:52 PM ET

VALLETTA (AFP) – Malta's pro-EU ruling Nationalist Party (PN) won a general election that confirmed the Mediterranean archipelago's wish to join an enlarged European Union.

Prime Minister Eddie Fenech-Adami told a jubilant rally outside his party's headquarters he would travel to Athens on Wednesday to sign the EU accession treaty, making Malta the southernmost outpost of Europe.

With counting of votes cast in Saturday's election ongoing, Fenech-Adami claimed victory and his Labour Party opponent Alfred Sant conceded defeat on the strength of early projections based on a sample of the vote.

The final result delivered by the electoral commission early on Monday gave the PN 51.7 percent, the Labour Party 47.6 and an ecology party Alternativa Demokrattika 0.7 percent.

The PN will have 34 seats in the new parliament, one less than in the outgoing assembly, with Labour taking an extra seat, giving it 31 in the 65-seat parliament.

More importantly for Brussels, the result validates a narrow Yes vote in last month's non-binding consultative referendum on joining an enlarged European Union, in the process sparking noisy street parties throughout the capital Valletta.

“This is second confirmation in a very short time of the country's desire to join the European Union,” Fenech-Adami said, referring to the March 8 referendum in which 53 percent voted Yes to Europe.

Under Malta's constitution, that vote had to be confirmed by a general election.

Fenech-Adami said the vote “brings honour to the country. Now the other 24 EU and accession states will look on us with confidence as a stable country.”

The first unofficial result was that the PN has obtained a majority of the votes (52). People should not go out to celebrate until the result is official..

Update: lots of carcades are on all the streets now.
The result is now official. I have been filming lots of
footage of the celebrations on the streets which I will put online.

MLP leader Dr Alfred Sant conceded defeat and accepted the election result.