Shaping the EU to Maltese needs

When our country participates in the Olympics taking place in Paris this summer, we will be sending the best and most prepared athletes. Europe is also a competition of sorts. All member states are geared to achieve what is best for their people and for their country. We must hence make sure to send our best ‘athletes’ to represent us in the European Parliament. We must strive to choose those among us who are best equipped to bring results for Maltese citizens.

We need to adapt Europe to our needs as an island state and as an archipelago. We are repetitively seeing that several EU laws being adopted are not fit for the reality on the ground in the Maltese islands. There is no one within EU institutions who has in mind of giving Malta and its citizens a hard time. It is up to us to shape EU policies to the needs of Malta. EU laws which affect us negatively are the outcome of lack of effective work to make the necessary changes in EU law at the right time.

One classic example is the Emission Trading Scheme directive which in principle is a noble cause to safeguard the environment but which negatively impacts jobs at the Freeport and Maltese consumers.  The Freeport alone is set to lose €140 million in revenues yearly. The cost of transporting shipping containers between Malta and four Italian ports has risen by up to €90 per container from January. We got to know all of this six months after the directive was adopted. That is not acceptable. We need to anticipate changes before EU legislation is shaped. We need to act earlier and carefully; study how European laws will affect us because once proposals become law it will be too late.

The same applies to EU laws on sustainable aviation fuel which will see fares for air passengers as well as cargo increase. Fighting climate change is in our interest, but it cannot come at a disproportionate cost for islands where air travel is crucial.

My commitments and vision

This is why in the Conference on the Future of Europe I called for the introduction of territorial impact assessments to take into account the realities on islands before the European Commission proposes legislation. I am glad that this proposal has also been included in the manifesto of the EPP adopted during the congress in Bucharest. This is an important commitment and I pledge to ensure its implementation in the next five years.

Furthermore, if elected as MEP I will contribute in terms of capacity building for us as a nation to better understand what Europe is doing and to be able to adapt it to our needs. I will organise national conferences with stakeholders to exchange views and set national priorities. This will help feed into the priorities of the European Commission.

Currently, we have MEPs representing Malta in nine of the 20 committees and several EU legislations are not being adapted by the parliament to our needs.  I will therefore table amendments in all legislative committees of the European Parliament on legislation which leaves an impact on Malta by working closely with members of the largest political group – the EPP. The same applies to EU legislation which is of interest to Gozo – which goes beyond the committee responsible for regional policy.

Above all I want to scrutinise the work of the Maltese government in Brussels. It can’t be that the government says one thing in Malta but votes in another way in Brussels. The government can't continue to treat people as fools. This is what happened with the EU Urban Wastewater Directive. An EU requirement for pharmaceutical producers to pay for wastewater treatment will lead to higher prices of medicines for end consumers. Minister Miriam Dalli went on record to note that Malta was worried that the requirement made on pharmaceutical producers could impact patients. Yet Malta voted in favour of the directive, despite those concerns and without including any safeguard for price increases on medicines.

We need to change the way we do Maltese politics in Europe and I am now ready to use my 20 years of experience in the EU machinery to make this happen.

On 8 June use your vote to make this a reality.