Deborah Schembri concedes that she had considered running for the European Parliament after serving in the Maltese one – but not as soon as now.

After all, the lawyer, who became a household name when she chaired the pro-divorce movement in the run-up to the 2011 divorce referendum, has only been sworn in as an MP a little over a year ago.

“Serving in the same position for decades does not appeal to me on various levels,” Dr Schembri observes.

“I was thinking I would serve in the Maltese parliament for some 10 years – presuming I am re-elected – and then seek to give contribute in Europe.”

But the MP was approached by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who asked her to consider contesting this year. After some thought and discussions with her family, she accepted to do so.

“I had promised to the Prime Minister that I would contribute where needed and that is what I am doing,” she maintains, stressing that she was not forced to do so as she had already considered contesting at some point.

Dr Schembri observes that being an MP may actually detrimental to her European election campaign, not least because of the commitments the job entails. The MP is involved in numerous committees, including the Social Affairs Committee which she chairs.

“I am an MP... I cannot stop doing this work just because I have an ambition to serve in the European Parliament,” she explains.

The MP also concedes that people who have voted for her last year have expressed reluctance to vote for her this time round: not because she has fallen from favour, but because her election would mean the end of her term in parliament. But ultimately, she is in no rush to leave parliament yet.

 “It will not be a problem if I am not elected, as I am very happy here... as long as I am contributing to the country at some level,” she explains.

“I am ready to contribute wherever I am needed.”

The MP is no party veteran – her involvement in the Labour Party started only after the divorce referendum took place – and agrees that the fact that she is not a hardliner helps, in Malta and in Europe.

“What interests me is that the Maltese are better off… when I felt that a political party was not acting in this interest I found no problem with distancing myself from it,” she notes, alluding to her Nationalist Party background.

Dr Schembri maintains that a moderate background helps keep political allies on their toes, and helps bridge the gaps between political parties and between politicians and the public. But she stresses that she is far from alone in being a voice for moderation in the Labour Party, noting that Dr Muscat himself was “very moderate.”

“So I do not feel like an outsider… even though I come from outside of the Labour Party, I feel very much at home,” she adds.

MEPs ‘must pull the same rope’

Dr Schembri acknowledges that the Maltese – like many Europeans – tend to feel distant from the European Parliament and other EU institutions.

But while she states that the institutions themselves may need to improve their communication with the public, she also suggests that MEPs are not helping correct perceptions.

“Unfortunately, lately we have noticed that we have MEPs when debate on the Individual Investor Programme, and later on the LNG tanker issue, came up,” Dr Schembri maintains, referring to issues raised at an EP level by Nationalist Party MEPs.

“Those who should be working to get the best for Malta, ended up mainly speaking up against the country… if you have a problem in your own country, you should thrash it out there.”

Dr Schembri disagrees that speaking out in the Maltese parliament and in the European one are equivalent, pointing out that the latter is made up of hundreds of MEPs working in their country’s interest.

“Having six MEPs only to see them divided over any issue makes no sense… we have only six and we need to make use of all of them.”

Pressed further, the MP concedes that in extreme cases – where the government is acting in a way that is manifestly against the national interest – there might be grounds for MEPs to dissent: but even in such cases, she still believes that Malta’s contingent should unite in doing so.

EU ‘must not allow immigration to become a problem’

Should she be elected to the European Parliament, the MP would seek to be active in the field of civil rights, which she describes as a pet subject and the probable reason for her decision to become a lawyer in the first place.

“I cannot stand to see people suffer… to feel discriminated against,” Dr Schembri observes.

One key issue concerning civil rights is immigration, which the MP acknowledges was a very difficult subject since two aspects needed to be taken into consideration, including the “ultra-important” humanitarian aspect.

“We must never forget that this is a human tragedy involving people who are doing what we would have done in that situation… we owe them our help,” Dr Schembri maintains.

“But on the other side of the coin, there is national security… we must strike a balance.”

The MP disagrees with alarmist views of the situation in Malta, insisting that at present, the arrival of asylum seekers was “not a problem, but an issue we need to tackle.”

“We are erring as a country when we let ourselves get worked up over the belief that Malta is facing a nightmare scenario,” she maintains.

But while she argues that the Maltese attitude towards asylum seekers should improve, she also points out that the lack of sufficient assistance from the EU needs to be addressed.

“The issue should not be left to become a problem before it is tackled,” Dr Schembri observes.

“It should not be left to Malta or Lampedusa to address it, because the people who arrive there will suffer… the issue should be addressed at a European level so that people can be helped as much as possible,” she adds.

Dr Schembri states that it should be up to member states to determine whether they adopt a policy of detention where asylum seekers are concerned, but she also recognises room for improvement in the conditions of Malta’s own detention centres.

She notes that a recent visit to the centres was an overwhelming experience, and helped her realise that more work needed to be done.

‘Politics equals change’

Dr Schembri also expresses a particular interest in the issues facing small businesses, noting that the EU tends to veer towards an undesirable “one-size-fits-all” mentality which had to be addressed to protect Malta’s competitive edge.

 “While we have a sacrosanct duty to guarantee good working conditions, we must not set out exaggerated impositions on employers, as you end up with a greater problem if they are left unable to employ people,” she explains.

Another EU-related issue raised by Dr Schembri is the youth guarantee, with the MP expressing dissatisfaction at the way it has been implemented in the EU: funding is only provided to countries whose youth unemployment rate exceeds 40%. This, she argues, means that an unemployment young person living in Malta and another living in countries with higher unemployment are being treated differently, even though they face the same struggle.

The MP then points out that in many cases, it does not require revolutionary changes to address issues at an EU level, but revisions to the implementation to ensure that an initiative achieves its intended target.

But what is crucial to Dr Schembri is that politicians achieve change in the first place.

“In my dictionary, politics equals change. It is not power – maybe it is in a lot of people’s minds – but power is in the hands of voters,” she maintains.

“If people elect you and you fail to change anything, you are being useless.”

Bio

·         Dr Schembri, a lawyer by profession, stepped into the spotlight as the chairman of the pro-divorce Moviment Iva ghad-Divorzju ahead of the 2011 referendum.

·         She announced that she would contest the general elections under the Labour Party banner shortly after the referendum took place, and was successfully elected to parliament last year.

·         The MP presently chairs Parliament’s Social Affairs Committee, and is also a member of the House Business Committee, the Privileges Committee and the Family Affairs Committee. She is also involved in the Consideration of Bills Committee on a bill reviewing the existing care order system.