All politics is (not) local

Some years ago, a group of motor bikers decided to take action in order to express an opinion on a legislative proposal on the speed at which they could travel on the roads and highways of the countries of the European Union. They opted to target the rapporteur and chairman of a particular committee in the European parliament and lobby their position with them. They were extremely successful.

Cases like this and hundreds of others give evidence of the way the European parliament has emerged from the shadows of its sister institutions of the European Union to the prominent role it holds today.

An institution that was given a mere consultative role until a decade ago, the European parliament has successfully managed to position itself at the fore of EU decision-making, to the extent that groups that represent a specific societal interest no longer have to first lobby their national governments in order for the latter to bring the issue before a Council of Ministers' meeting.

Now, any person or group of individuals who would like to influence a particular decision that is in the process of being taken can lobby the MEP directly. For through his or her role in the various parliamentary committees, an MEP will be able to promote the cause of particular groups of individuals.

This is why it is so important to establish a constant and direct link with your MEP. Every individual has a right to be represented and it is the duty of the MEP to ensure that this right is satisfied. This is done first and foremost through an open-door policy of the MEP's local office. Every MEP has the duty to have an office anywhere in Malta and Gozo which will be fully staffed and open to cater for everybody's needs.

Representation of local interests can also take place within other structures working parallel with the European parliament. The Economic and Social Committee and the Commission have both articulated dominant discourses of "civil society".

The former is a platform that gives the chance to Maltese individuals to represent the specific interests and needs of local groups such as NGOs and NGDOs at European level.

A platform whose role will be invaluable in its consultation with the MEPs throughout the decision-making legislative process within the European parliament.

For it is ideas that shape strategic interests at the local level and the role of particular actors and institutions will consequently become important in mediating, contesting and realising those ideas.

One will, thus, finally start to see the extent that sub-national civil society can play in the governance of multi-level regimes, such as is the European Union.

The "local" deserves to be intermingled with the "European"; every one of us has a right to stand up, to be counted and to make a difference.

Dr Tedesco Triccas is a Nationalist Party candidate for the June 12 European parliament elections.