Malta’s Parliament failed to find the time to draft a single opinion on the 170 different documents sent by the European Commission last year, including more than 80 legislative proposals, according to a report.
The report about the Commission’s political dialogue with national parliaments in 2010 exposes the Maltese MPs’ lack of participation and utter disengagement from EU affairs.
While other national parliaments are, in general, increasing their participation in this exchange – introduced by Commission president José Manuel Barroso in 2006 and strengthened by the Lisbon Treaty – Malta is among the member states still not geared up to partake in this dialogue.
“We are concerned about Malta’s lack of participation in this important dialogue,” a Commission official told The Times.
“Although the Commission and the EP repeatedly raised this issue with the Maltese authorities it seems these appeals have fallen on deaf ears.”
This report comes in the wake of another form of disengagement by some local MPs – the dismal record of attendance in the House by parliamentary assistants, highlighted by Nationalist backbencher Jean-Pierre Farrugia.
The need for the Maltese parliamentarians to become more involved in what is going on in the EU was recently stressed during EP President Jerzy Buzek’s visit to Malta.
Despite added responsibilities for national parliaments enshrined in the EU Treaty, resources at the Parliament remained almost at the same level as they were before Malta became an EU member.
This prompted Speaker Michael Frendo to publicly lament on numerous occasions that Parliament was not equipped to deal with the reality of being an EU member state. Last year, he urged Parliament to double its resources to respond to the new EU challenges.
Malta’s Parliament is also still physically absent from the EP despite being offered free office space to send a permanent representative to work closely with MEPs. Malta is the only member state with no such representative in Brussels.
According to the Commission’s report, however, Malta is not the only country whose Parliament is detached. Others are the national chambers of France and Hungary, which are normally among the most active participants in EU affairs.
Overall, the Commission’s report notes an increased interest in the EU executive’s dialogue with national parliaments, with an increase of over 60 per cent in the number of opinions sent to Brussels during the past year.
Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, responsible for inter-institutional relations, said national parliaments were showing they wanted to become more involved in European affairs, and at a much earlier stage than before. “The Commission is fully committed to deepening its political dialogue with national parliaments and to further enhance its contacts and exchanges with all 40 national parliamentary chambers in the 27 member states,” he said.
National parliaments last year submitted a total of 387 opinions.