EU institutions need to be more responsive and accessible, PD says

Partit Demokratiku has insisted that the European Union's institutions need to move away from bureacracy and be more accessible and responsive to public opinion.

"One widely held perception is that the European Union institutions work in a bubble with little regard for public opinion and the sensitivities of member states. Another is that national governments will often take the political credit when things are going well, whilst blaming the EU when things are not going so well, even if the fault may lie with the national government," PD said.

In a statement which the party released on Saturday, PD said that Europe's democratic institutions must not only work but also be seen to be doing so for the purpose of revealing the cracks in national governments. It added that the EU must be based on decentralisation, moving away from burdensome bureaucracy and over-regulation.

"Decisions must be taken at the appropriate national or EU level, whichever serves Malta’s and other Member states’ best interest. We share a responsibility to foster an honest debate about the future of Europe and better promote the positive impact of EU policies and cooperation on the lives of our citizens,” the statement read.

PD praised the EU for doing "a good job on many fronts" but said that it was not marketing its successes effectively and that for this reason EU citizens were unaware of the power and benefits of the union.

"The EU needs to develop a marketing machine that reaches every single citizen in Europe through plain, simple, ideally graphic and video, messaging," PD said.

PD insisted that a new effective mechanism outside the framework of Article 7 of the Treaty of the European Union needs to be implemented in order to monitor violations of fundamental rights, civil liberties and the rule of law in the member states of the EU. This should be coupled, it said, with the European Commission as the guardian of EU treaties able to enforce sanctions in cases of violations.