Given that today marks the 11th anniversary of Malta’s accession to the European Union, I could not avoid the temptation to write about a topic which has been the one constant in my career ever since my university days.
For some, the process leading to Malta joining the EU on May 1, 2004 was mainly a political issue mired by the partisan debate (or lack of it) that took place prior to the 2003 referendum on EU accession and the general election held soon after, which definitely (and thankfully) put an end to one of the most, if not the most, serious decisions which the Maltese people had to take following Independence, the proclamation of the Republic and the end of all foreign military presence on these islands.
My first encounter with the EU – then still the European Communities (EC) – was when I chose to write my LL.D. thesis on the external relations of the EC. This choice more or less defined the rest of my life till the present day.
Following graduation, I spent a short stint at what was then Malta’s Permanent Delegation to the EC in Brussels. This was my first encounter with Brussels – a city not too many are fond of. However, I may be one of the exceptions because, although the city I travel to most, Brussels remains one of my favourite haunts.
When I first arrived in Brussels in 1988, there were no direct flights from Malta. One had to travel via Amsterdam, which meant that, after a three-hour flight, you then had to travel by train for another three hours before reaching one of the three main train stations in the Belgian capital.
My first glimpse of Brussels was as I emerged from the Gare Centrale or Brussel Centraal – one of the peculiarities of the city being its bilingualism, which can become confusing at times until you get accustomed to the idea that Rue de la Loi and Wetstraat are the names in French and Flemish respectively of this most important of roads linking the city centre to the main offices of the European institutions.
Brussels was then still very much a huge construction site. Today, you emerge from the Gare Centrale and land on the Carrefour de l’Europe with its many hotels beyond which lies the magnificent Grand Place.
In 1988, there was just a road; just as there was no Justus Lipsius building (the seat of the Council of the EU) and no Paul-Henri Spaak Building or Altiero Spinelli Building, which today house the European Parliament in Brussels.
Moreover, the EC then had 10 member States and, though the city was already full of fonctionnaires haling from the different member States, it was no way as exciting as it is today with 28 member States.
Brussels is Europe in miniature – not because it is the most beautiful city in Europe (which it is not) but because it is a city which openly welcomes people of different nationalities, cultures and religion, despite certain extremist or xenophobic elements that one unfortunately finds all over the continent.
I did not stay long in Brussels since I was offered the possibility to pursue post-graduate studies at the Collège de l’Europe, in Bruges.
I was among the first group of Maltese students to go to Bruges. We were a group of five – three of us reading for European law and the other two following European administrative studies.
When Malta speaks, the other member states listen and give weight to what is being said
It was all completely new to us. Firstly, attending courses in both French and English and sitting for exams in French when all we had was a rather basic notion of the language, which we had picked up from secondary school. Moreover, most of the exams were aural. It was also a kind of culture shock since the system was very different to that we had experienced at university back home.
Furthermore, many of the students from the other countries had been shortlisted following a very rigorous national selection process. But we survived and became the first five Maltese ever to graduate from the Collège de l’Europe.
To cut a very long story short, despite our newly-acquired European credentials, there was not much for us to do back in Malta then because it was still early days in terms of Malta’s long and winding road to join the EU.
And when it was about to take off, a personal choice led me to a very different path which would, however, eventually also reunite me with my longer-term vocation. In 1999, a year after Malta’s application to join the EU had been re-activated following the 1996-1998 ‘freeze’, (then) Archbishop Joseph Mercieca asked me to give him a hand in trying to better understand what was happening in terms of the accession process. In October 1999, the European Commission had recommended that member states open accession negotiations with Malta.
The Church too needed to understand what was happening because joining the EU would of course have huge consequences for us all. The Archbishop found himself in a very difficult situation because, although Pope John Paul II was very actively promoting Poland’s EU membership bid and despite the fact that the Holy See was generally in favour of enlargement, considering it as an important step in the Europeanisation of the old continent, here in Malta, the bishops could not comment lest they would be accused of interfering in politics.
Hence, on the one hand, the Holy See and European bishops were quite actively pushing for the next enlargement, yet, here in Malta, the Church could not participate in any way in the debate. This was a pity. However, at the end of the day, as I already stated earlier on, there was no debate on EU membership taking place – just the usual partisan divide presenting a heaven or hell scenario of what it would be like were Malta to join the EU.
One thing I did manage to do was to establish links with COMECE – the commission that brings together the bishops’ conferences of the member states. I also started to accompany the Archbishop to COMECE meetings and it was during these meetings that I could see him broaden his horizons regarding some of the many challenges that would impact Maltese society.
His initial fear of Maltese society “being influenced” by trends in other European countries somehow gave way to a critical realism that change could not be stopped and that, by listening to and discussing the experiences of the Church in other countries, one could try to avoid the mistakes committed by others.
For the past seven years I have been more deeply immersed in EU affairs as head of the Malta-EU Steering and Action Committee (Meusac). I have avoided dwelling on this since what I write here is in my own personal capacity and not by virtue of the position I hold. However, one great satisfaction I cannot fail to mention is to see how we have matured as a nation in terms of EU membership.
It is not an understatement when it is said that Malta has, for the past 11 years, been well represented.
A senior official from the foreign ministry of another member State, who recently visited Malta, commented on how, in the Council of the EU, Malta chooses not speak on every issue but, rather, strategically, that is, when our interests are truly at stake, thereby earning for itself a good reputation around the Council table. As a result, when Malta speaks, the other member states listen and give weight to what is being said. That, in itself, is a great accomplishment for this tiny country of ours.