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WWW.MALTATODAY.COM.MT WEDNESDAY EDITION WEDNESDAY • 22 April 2015 • issue 412 • published every wednesdAy And sundAy €1.00 EDITORIAL PAGE 10 SLIEMA 64, Tower Road. Tel: 2132 3307 VALLETTA 25, Treasury Street. Tel: 2124 7770 www.facebook.com/7camiciemalta Newspaper post Captain of death vessel Tunisian smuggler in migrant shipwreck in which hundreds are believed to have perished captured in this photo next to survivors of new migrant massacre Arrested captain Mohammed Ali Malek, in the white suit, on the Italian coastguard ship after being rescued. Photo: Ray Attard Italy, Malta push for EU operation targeting people smugglers MIRIAM DALLI THE European Union will be asked to give its "political blessing" to an operation targeting people smug- glers, modelled on the successful anti-piracy mission Operation Ata- lanta, MaltaToday has learnt. EU heads of state and government will convene in Brussels tomorrow for an extraordinary summit, called following the deadliest migrant tragedy in the Mediterranean that claimed the life of 700 migrants. The emergency EU summit on Lib- ya was requested by Italy and Malta as rescue crews continued searching for survivors and bodies. Council President Donald Tusk is now ex- pecting the member states to present options for immediate action. In Rome, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi made it clear that the first action should be target- ing the criminal organisation mak- ing millions out of illegal immigra- tion, netting as much as $1 million per trip sending migrants on rickety boats. On Monday, EU foreign and inte- rior ministers agreed to a 10-point action plan, including "a systematic effort to capture and destroy vessels used by the smugglers". "In reality this is the novelty point which the European Commission agreed to and it is the point that Mal- ta welcomes," Muscat told MaltaTo- day, explaining that the EU should not wait for the trafficking of human beings to take place and for tragedies to occur before action is taken. "The EU must be active with oper- ations targeting smugglers and stop rickety boats laden with hundreds of people from sailing the seas." The EU, concerned with the effect of Somali-based piracy and armed robbery at sea off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean, in 2008 kicked off Operation Atalanta targeting pirates who take control of vessels transiting the High Risk Area in the Region and extorting ransom money for the crew, the vessel and cargo. Since 2009, Operation Atalanta protected close to 450 vessels and transferred a total of 154 pirates to the competent authorities with a view to their prosecution. Muscat said there are EU member states with the necessary resources to conduct such a mission and there is the political willingness. "The EU is being asked to give its political blessing," Muscat said, add- ing that the operation was about pre- ventive action and not an invasion. PN leader Simon Busuttil said the Opposition fully support the gov- ernment's position on the matter, saying that any mission ending the senseless loss of lives will enjoy the PN's backing. CONTINUES ON PAGE 4 Tonio Fenech opposes changing GWU audit's terms MAT THEW VELLA JUSTICE minister Owen Bon- nici has proposed changing the terms of reference for an inquiry by the Auditor General, demand- ed by the Opposition into the sub-lease to ARMS Ltd of pub- lic propert y rented to the GWU, claiming parts of the investiga- tion would be more suited to a court of law to decide upon. In a letter to Public Accounts Committee chairman Tonio Fenech, Bonnici suggested that the National Audit Office's in- quiry – establishing whether the General Workers Union can sub- lease parts of its headquarters to utilit y billing company ARMS – was "a potentially legally con- tentious point" for an auditor to investigate. Nationalist MP Tonio Fenech has insisted that it is not the PAC's remit to inf luence the NAO's investigation by changing its terms of reference. The PAC has the power to ask the NAO to carry out audits on government business and even summon witnesses to testif y on NAO findings. The Opposition is demand- ing an audit into the award of a €309,750, five-year contract to the GWU to house new Valletta offices for ARMS, claiming the sub-lease breaches the GWU's public lease contract with the Lands Department. In 1957, the government grant- ed the GWU a perpetual emphy- teusis on public land on South Street and Old Bakery Street – for an annual €801 ground rent – to build its headquarters and use the premises solely for trade union activities and the GWU's Union Press. In 1997 the union moved its press to Marsa, and requested that the contract be amended. The new deed allowed the GWU to use the space for any company in which the GWU has over 51% of shares – which would now ex- clude government-owned ARMS. The PN wants the NAO to es- tablish whether the public lease was breached, whether the Gov- ernment Propert y Department CONTINUES ON PAGE 3