Maltese MPs inactive on EU legislation

The European Commission has had no reaction from Maltese parliamentarians, whether in the form of comments or recommendations, about hundreds of proposals made by Brussels.

According to the European Commission, Malta, together with Spain and newcomer Romania, were the only EU member states out of the 27 whose Parliament did not make any remarks or comments on legislation proposed by Brussels over the past three years.

Since 2006, the Commission introduced a comment system to try bridging the gap between European and national politics. Through the system, a precursor to more powers that will be given to national Parliaments once the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, all the Commission's proposals and consultation papers are sent directly to national Parliaments when published. On their part, Parliaments are expected to revise the documents and then send their comments to the Commission for consideration. Although the Commission is not obliged to change its proposals, comments by national Parliaments are normally taken into consideration.

According to the EU Executive, Portuguese MPs have so far been the most receptive to the new method of direct dialogue with Brussels, so much so that they made 102 of the total 505 comments sent so far by national Parliaments to Brussels.

The Lisbon Chamber was followed by the French Senate (58 comments), the German Upper House (48 comments), the Swedish Parliament (44 comments) and the British House of Lords (39 comments). The Maltese Parliament has an EU and Foreign Affairs Committee, which normally deals with all EU matters.

This is not the first time that the Maltese Parliament was negatively mentioned when it comes to EU matters.

Besides numerous joint meetings between the European Parliament and national Parliaments, which are not attended by Maltese deputies, Malta is also one of only two member states that do not yet have a permanent representative in Brussels accredited to the EP despite facilities and office space available at the EP building for this reason.

Incidentally, the other EU member state without an official at the EP is Spain, which, incidentally, ranks last in terms of the number of comments sent to Brussels by its Parliament.

The role of national Parliaments is expected to increase drastically in the coming months if the new Lisbon Treaty is ratified. According to a new mechanism to be introduced, the European Commission will be obliged to review, although not necessarily withdraw, a proposal if at least one third of national Parliaments (nine) say it breaches the subsidiarity principle.

If a simple majority of Parliaments continue to object to the proposal but the Commission maintains the draft as it is, then member states and the European Parliament have to decide whether they agree or not with the national objections. Thus, the role of Malta's Parliament and its contact with the EU institutions is expected to increase drastically once the Lisbon Treaty is in place.