Trust in Parliament, government grows but still lags European institutions

Maltese MPs need to work harder to earn people's trust because the Maltese have more faith in the European Parliament than in the national Parliament, a Eurobarometer report published yesterday shows.

While 67 per cent of respondents say they trust the EP, 57 per cent said the same for the Maltese Parliament.

Almost a third of the respondents - 30 per cent - went as far as to say they tend not to trust the national Parliament, more than double those who do not trust the European one.

However, the number of people who proclaimed trust in the national Parliament went up by 15 percentage points between 2007 and last year.

The Eurobarometer survey, published yesterday, was based on face-to-face interviews with 500 people held between October 6 and November 6.

The government enjoys the trust of fewer people than Parliament, with just 50 per cent saying they had faith in it and 37 per cent tending not to. However, the percentage of those who trust the government also increased, by five per cent over the previous year.

Political parties have it slightly worse, with 51 per cent saying they do not trust them, while only 34 per cent do. The other 15 per cent remained neutral.

Maltese people's belief that EU membership is a good thing dropped since the last survey six months earlier, by 14 percentage points to 46 per cent. Although 60 per cent of respondents felt the country had benefitted through EU accession, this figure has also dropped by 12 per cent from the previous report.

The report shows that immigration, inflation and energy are the Maltese people's greatest concerns. Almost half of respondents ranked immigration as the first priority when asked what issues their country was facing. This was closely followed by inflation, which topped the list of concerns the year before.

Discussions about the new water and electricity tariffs during October seem to have had an impact on people's concerns, with 28 per cent of respondents ranking it as a worry. This was a big jump from the previous year when just five per cent of people ranked energy-related issues as a concern.

The Maltese are not so concerned over terrorism, defence and foreign policy.

Interestingly, although many complain about healthcare, it was only listed among the top two concerns for four per cent of Maltese.

A quarter of people expect their life to take a turn for the worse this year, with this pessimism increasing by 12 percentage points over last year. The majority, however, expect their lives to remain the same. Only 19 per cent of Maltese expect the economic situation to improve in the coming 12 months.

The Maltese seem very pessimistic about the economic situation in their household, with only 13 per cent expecting it to get better, a decrease of 10 percentage points over the year before. Thirty per cent expect their household's economic situation to take a turn for the worse, double the number of people who thought this would be the case last year.

Asked about the local employment situation, a third of Maltese respondents expected it to get worse, again an increase over last year. A staggering 53 per cent of Europeans expect the employment situation to get worse this year.

The Maltese, however, are among the most optimistic about the economic situation in the EU, with 21 per cent believing it will get better this year. The Finnish are the most pessimistic, with 61 per cent thinking that it is expected to get worse.

Joanna Drake, head of the European Commission's representation in Malta, said elements of negativity were expected in the current global scenario but it was positive that there was still a high level of faith in the EU.

Factbox: Some other figures

• Just under a third of the Maltese population (31 per cent) are very satisfied with the life they lead. The Dutch top the European list of people who feel satisfied with their lives, while Bulgarians are the least satisfied.

• Maltese people tend to trust the European Commission more than their other European counterparts - 59 per cent of Maltese said they trust the Commission and 13 per cent said they do not.

• The UK is the only EU member state where there are more people who do not trust the Commission (45 per cent) than those who do (27 per cent).

• Sixty-three per cent of Maltese are in favour of the introduction of the euro.

• Sixty per cent of Maltese believe the country has benefitted from EU membership.