The building of Malta's first Parliament House should be an opportunity for Parliament to acquires its full autonomy, Speaker Michael Frendo said at the Sette Giugno commemoration, held today.

Speaking at the foot of the monument which recalls the 1919 riots, Dr Frendo said: "It is unsustainable that the Maltese Parliament is still considered as a Government Department from an administrative viewpoint, even though in practice it has already acquired a certain operative space. In my opinion, a specific building for Parliament will lead to a marked change in the popular perspective of Parliament, in the identification of the nature and role of
Parliament in our democracy.

"In order to change the current mindset, this important physical change must also be reflected in the legal infrastructure which grants our Parliament the autonomy enjoyed by Parliaments in all other European Union countries and, amongst others, in a state protocol which recognises that, in a democracy, those in elected office should always rank higher than nominated officials.

"Please allow me to throw down the gauntlet to the political powers to go beyond
talking about the autonomy of the Parliamentary Institution, and to commit
themselves in their political programmes, unless this materialises before, to enact a law at the first opportunity in the next legislature which renders Parliament autonomous from a decisional, financial and recruitment point of view," Dr Frendo said.

In his address Dr Frendo spoke about the historical importance of the 1919 events as a defining moment of national unity between all social classes to achieve the political rights of the Maltese people. 

"History surely teaches us that rights won must be safeguarded everyday,
and that one must remain incessantly vigilant to ensure that they are not lost. This is our collective call today as a people, as servants of democracy, as guardians of the Constitutional Institutions, as civil society, as the press and the media, as citizens," he said.

"Within this framework it is the duty of all of these to constantly protect and strengthen Parliament and the status of parliamentarians as representatives elected by the people.

"Failure to do this would amount to contempt for the value of the vote cast by the
individual citizen in the ballot box, from which springs forth the people's free will."

When he spoke of parliament's activities, Dr Frendo noted that for the first time, the Maltese Parliament  exercised for the first time the rights reserved by the
Lisbon Treaty to National Parliaments concerning respect for the principle of
subsidiarity. This occurred on three occasions, and the Maltese Parliament raised
objections with the European Institutions specifically about a 'Proposal for a Council Directive on a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base' a 'Proposal for a Council Directive on a common system of financial transaction tax;' and a 'Proposal for a Council Regulation on the exercise of the right to take collective action within the context of the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services.'

Although in the first two proposals, the amount of votes required amongst the
National Parliaments of the Member States in order to block the proposals separately was not attained, in the most recent one, the number of required votes was reached and exceeded.

The European Commission is now always required to take on board the objections raised by the National Parliaments of the Member States, and where appropriate, to amend or even withdraw its proposal.

"This not only shows that the National Parliaments are now an integral part of the
European decision-making architecture, but also that our Parliament has started
becoming more active in using the new powers granted to it by the Lisbon Treaty," Dr Frendo said.

This evening's ceremony included a parade by the police band to the monument in Hastings Garden, where flowers were laid by MPs and representatives of the political parties.