Malta may have the smallest delegation of MEPs in the European Parliament, but its five members have landed influential roles, according to a new study.
The five MEPs will be sitting on some of the most important committees in the new five-year legislature in Brussels making the Maltese delegation more influential than other EU member states with much larger delegations and populations.
According to the analytical study by an independent Romanian-based think-tank following the first parliamentary sitting of the new legislature last month, Malta has managed to beat bigger countries such as Ireland, Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia.
The study carried out by Qvorum - The European Forum for Participative Democracy of Bucharest - measured the position of the 27 different delegations according to the top positions that each country secured in the parliament's numerous structures.
According to the study, Malta's elected MEPs managed to convince their parliamentary group colleagues to assign them some of the more influential roles, particularly in committee positions where the bulk of EP work is done.
Following July's constitutive plenary session, where all the horse-trading was done, all Maltese MEPs ended up with some kind of role other than their ordinary MEP duty.
The Nationalist Party's Simon Busuttil landed the role of coordinator in the Civil Liberties Committee on behalf of the European People's Party - a very important EP committee for Malta as it deals with illegal immigration issues.
Dr Busuttil beat off competition from two other candidates from Spain and Portugal. The Maltese MEP will be responsible to coordinate all his group's work in the area and assign duties to fellow MEPs.
Apart from sitting on the Employment Committee, Nationalist MEP David Casa is vice-chair of one of the inter-parliamentary delegations the EP established with non-EU member states.
The Labour Party's three MEPs have also gained influential positions, with two of them becoming vice-presidents of important committees. Each of the EP's 20 committees has a chairman and four vice-chairs.
Louis Grech was chosen as vice-chair of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee while newly-elected Edward Scicluna will be deputising for the chairman of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee. Meanwhile, John Attard Montalto will be vice-chairman of another inter-parliamentary delegation.
The positions occupied by the five local MEPs marks a sharp contrast with the Maltese delegations' influence during their first full legislature between 2004 and 2009 - when the only significant post was the vice-chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, shared between former MEP Joseph Muscat and John Attard Montalto.
According to the think-tank's study, Germany, the largest EU member state, is over-represented in the European Parliament, giving it a correspondingly high potential to influence EU policies. On the other hand, other countries which are considered on par with Germany are at a disadvantage, including France, Italy and the UK.
According to the study, Slovenia, Estonia and Latvia have not obtained any important positions in the new assembly.
Ireland, which is set to hold a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty on October 2, is clearly "under-represented", compared with Denmark, Slovakia, Finland, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Malta.
The EP will resume its duties in September.