Institute of European Studies director says Malta should befriend Netherlands

Malta should start fostering a closer relationship with the Netherlands while holding the presidency of the European Council from January 2017, to make up for the loss of the protection so far provided by the UK and Italy, according to Dr Mark Harwood, director of the Institute for European Studies.

He was speaking at a public discussion, inspired by a new book by Prof Lino Briguglio and entitled 'Small states in the EU - Economic and political perspectives', at Europe House in Valletta on Friday evening.

Harwood said that small states in the EU tend to be reactive, because they have very little political and economic clout.

They also tended to rely very strongly on the European Commission, which has however been weakened greatly in the past few years, losing much of the
influence it had over other institutions.

Harwood said that many small member states tended to gravitate towards larger states, instead of bonding together to challenge larger states.

Malta in particular used relations with other large states to protect its interests and to use in bargaining with the EU, he said.

"However Malta's position is now somewhat threatened because it was used to rely mainly on the cooperation of the UK and Italy," Harwood said.

"With the UK having voted to leave the EU, that leaves Malta with only Italy as key partner, and Italy has recently been adopting a more critical view of Franco-German influence within the EU."

Briguglio said that small states in the EU can be successful if they make the right decisions, being constantly aware of any opportunities that might arise.

He said that small states were especially dependent on the export market because of their limited internal markets.

"Failure to pay attention to this market could bring a small state to its knees," he said.

All the small states in the EU, except Cyprus, viewed membership in the EU as beneficial, mostly because of the funds received, he noted.

Malta was one example of a member state where this perception in among the strongest recorded.

Cyprus believes they have been victimised because of their size and remain unhappy with the way they have been treated, although this should not lead to them leaving the EU," Briguglio said.

He said that small Baltic states, on the other hand, felt that membership provided a security blanket to counter any threats posed by Russia.

Labour Party MEP Alfred Sant that EU membership was driven by economic and political concerns in each new member state.

For some countries, the EU was considered a political refuge while, for others, the power of the Euro was the main attraction.

"But many small states found that they lost flexibility because, once they became members, they had to adopt all the EU's policies that were introduced equally across all member states," he said.

"As a result, the diversification Malta had on its economy was gradually diminished once the EU policies were adopted."

Sant said that it would very detrimental for small states if the EU were to look at controlling financial services.

Nationalist Party MEP Roberta Metsola said that although small EU member states faced many common goals and issues, they did not always face the same economic or political problems and could not always work together for a common goal.

Even the six Maltese MEPs sometimes had against the mainstream belief of their political bloc in order to promote the interests of Malta, and then having to explain their reasons for doing so.

This was because social, economic and political realities could vary considerably across the member states.

Dr Vanni Xuereb, head of the Malta-EU Steering Action Committee (MEUSAC), said that any scepticism as to how beneficial EU membership would be for Malta, had by now been silenced by the strong economic growth that the country had enjoyed since joining the bloc.