Speaker says Parliament lacks resources to follow Brussels

Parliament lacks the necessary set-up to react independently to proposals made by the European Commission, Speaker Louis Galea has admitted.

In addition, the House of Representatives did not have the necessary funds to have a Permanent Representative in Brussels, he said.

Just over a week ago, The Times reported that, according to the European Commission, Malta's was one of three parliaments in the EU - the others being those of Spain and Romania - which over the past three years had not made a single comment to Brussels on hundreds of proposals issued by the Commission.

In 2006, the Commission introduced a comment system to bridge the gap between European and national politics. Through the scheme, a precursor to the extended powers to be given to national parliaments if the Lisbon Treaty enters 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 send their comments to the Commission to be duly considered.

Dr Galea denied that Parliament was inactive when it came to reacting to proposals by the Commission. "The Maltese Parliament is very active and assiduously and carefully analyses all EU measures," he insisted.

Nevertheless, five years into Malta's accession to the EU, Parliament was still not geared to handle the EU as it wished due to lack of funds and resources granted by the government. Dr Galea said that when scrutinising EU proposals, Parliament could not act "independently from the government" due to the lack of a proper set-up similar to the government's.

"The Maltese Parliament system of scrutiny, like that of the House of Commons, is set up to address the positions taken by the government in the EU and, therefore, is fundamentally based on a Parliament-government relationship and not on a direct relationship with the European Commission," Dr Galea stressed.

"It does not, to date, have a set-up parallel to that in each and every ministry of government to analyse all documents independently of the government's position."

Without commenting on why the Maltese Parliament has not sent any comments to Brussels, Dr Galea said that "since September 2006", when the Commission's scheme was initiated, "1,040 EU documents, accompanied by explanatory memos on Malta's position as approved by the ministry concerned, the Inter-Ministerial Committee and Cabinet, have been scrutinised by Parliament through the Standing Committee on Foreign and European Affairs and its Standing Committee on Social Affairs".

Although Dr Galea said he agreed with having a Permanent Representative in Brussels, he said Parliament did not have the necessary funds to do it. "This is a proposal I fully support but which can only be put in effect if Parliament received the necessary financial support in its budgetary allocation."

Asked whether he was satisfied with the resources being allocated by the government so that Parliament could fulfil all its EU obligations, Dr Galea refused to comment further saying: "I have nothing more to add to my statement".

The chairman of Parliament's Standing Committee on Foreign and European Affairs, former Foreign Minister Michael Frendo, said that "the Speaker has spoken for all of us. I was aware of his statement and fully agree with his statement".

The issue of the role of Malta's Parliament in the EU was brought up by the leader of the Nationalist delegation in Brussels, Simon Busuttil, after the item appeared in The Times. Dr Busuttil described the situation as being "of grave concern".

Following Dr Galea's statement, Dr Busuttil said he stood by what he wrote and that, as members of the EU, "we need to act like members to the hilt".