Paying for the PrimeMinister's lunch

The government's inefficiency is not restricted to public affairs. Prominent Maltese journalists who were in Brussels this past week were lucky to avoid paying themselves for a lunch offered to them by the PrimeMinister. From Noel Grima's Brussels notebook:

While in Brussels, the Prime Minister generously offered lunch to the media, a gesture that was heartily applauded and approved of by all the media, regardless of their political colour. It was a quiet meal with normal dinnertime conversation going on, all very pleasant. At the end, the Prime Minister rose to go to his next appointment: a series of meetings with three commissioners. His staff rose and rushed off with him.

The rest of the media, with no pressing engagements, took it more leisurely and ambled out. When we got near the door, The Times’ Ivan Camilleri, MaltaToday’s Matthew Vella, PBS’s Reno Bugeja and myself, a tall waiter appeared from nowhere and blocked the way out. “Who’s paying?” he asked. We looked at each other, as realisation slowly dawned on us. Swift contact was established with the Prime Minister’s entourage and the embassy; the embassy promised, and did, settle the bill later that same afternoon.

Bullying the EU budget?