The Nice Treaty "secured our right to nominate a Comissioner," Mr Michael Frendo insists.
The Maltese MP and former minister, who is in Dublin to urge a Yes vote and spoke to a Drumcondra Fine Gael meeting on Nice last night, has a surprisingly different reading of a clause in the treaty that means precisely the opposite to Irish voters.
"It depends where you're coming from," he says, explaining that the accession countries had feared the treaty would deny them equality with current member-states on the issue. The prospect that, when the Union enlarges to 27, all will lose that automatic right in turn is not a problem to Malta.
The island, which is due to vote on accession in March or April, is deeply divided on the issue, with the Labour opposition adamantly opposed. Although it has had its application to join the EU in longer than any of the other 10 acceding states, Labour's election victory in 1996 led to a two-year "freezing" of the application.
He is quietly confident the Yes campaign will prevail.
Is Nice a good deal for Malta? Although the island is still trying to secure six MEPs, on a par with Luxembourg, Cyprus, and Estonia (the latter with three times its population), the issue is certainly not worth jeopardising accession over, Mr Frendo argues.
Malta is watching the Irish poll closely and with some concern, he says. "At the very least a No vote would delay enlargement considerably," he fears.
