We all believe that an advanced society holds dear the ideals of freedom and democracy. Somehow, they are the natural condition of “our advanced society”. The truth is, however, that the freedom and democracy we take for granted are slowly being dismantled in EU countries. It isn’t really as strange as it may seem at first. Apart from a short period in the middle of the last century, the Germans, French, Italians, Spanish, Benelux and Scandinavians have traditionally always been governed by a hereditary aristocracy. The hard-won freedoms enshrined in national constitutions (ours too) and the democratic institutions of the member states are slowly being replaced by complete control via an international “civil service” (that over time is becoming partly hereditary).

If they are to be saved, Malta and the European Union urgently need reform.

The EU has alienated the idea that general elections confer on the elected representative a special standing and the right to legislate individual freedoms in an EU state. Instead, the EU fears for the will of political demagoguery, ingrained through the suffering caused by the likes of Napoleon, Hitler, and Mussolini. And this fear, in turn, forced European Union drives to centralise decision making to Brussels. We find ourselves ruled by Eurocrats who do not grasp the fundamentals of democratic sovereign rights of self-governance or believe in them much.

In the very beginning, the European institutions focused on narrow technical issues such as regulating a common market for coal and steel, regulating the market and distribution of nuclear power, and the creation of a Customs union for member states. In all these areas, the member states gave up their rights to legislate to a distant “international civil service”. It did not matter much because the voters understood little and cared even less about these issues. Over time, this has become a big problem as the European Union has taken on issues the voters do care about and which are at the core of political decision making. When unelected mandarins that could not be voted out started deciding the economic and monetary policy, employment and social policy, transport policy and culture policy, the distance and limited democratic mandate and lack of accountability became a real problem. In effect, there was a gradual transition from an economic common policy to political policies that should always remain individual, sovereign concerns.

The problem of the democratic deficit grew as the elite focused on increasing the federal nature of Europe without asking the people if they wanted to shift power away from their parliaments and centralise it to Brussels. And when the people were asked if they wanted the Lisbon Treaty, it was voted down in France and Holland in the most legal and democratic way possible – via various referenda. Being thrown out democratically, however, did not in any way stop the EU imposing a slightly modified form of the Treaty on the 27 countries. And when the Irish also voted ‘No’ to this new Treaty in a referendum, they were forced to vote again. So much for respecting democratic rights of the people.

European legislation overrides the sovereign rights and legislation of member states countries even without the democratic consent of the voters or their representatives and sometimes against the expressed wishes of the voters of a country. For example, Ireland’s derogation on abortion is now completely and legally circumvented against the wishes of the majority of the Irish people. President of the European Parliament Martin Schultz has made it clear that he wants the same to happen in “all of the EU”. (And to be clear, with that he means Malta since we are the only country where abortion is illegal, derogation or no derogation.) We have seen this applied in Malta on issues like gay adoption, minors being able to change their gender status and so on. The Maltese voters have not been consulted because our government knows what the majority wants. If the EU machinery wants it, it must be so.

Our governments have been conditioned to bend and even give in to the wishes of the EU rather than to the electorate. The elites have been accustomed to systematically and unconditionally impose the directives from Brussels on the citizens regardless of the democratic wishes of their voters. It is, to me, incomprehensible that once proud Malta simply has accepted this state of affairs. When did we come to accept it as normal that EU law is above our national law, even our Constitution? It is just no so. Some of the EU countries (e.g. the German constitutional court) simply refuse to accept EU’s claim of primacy over national law. This ridiculous claim of primacy is one of the most believed and yet it must be one of the most illogical claims that have been imposed on us.

No matter what, EU law primacy can never be supreme over the Maltese Constitution or any nation’s sovereign rights. And sooner or later the real truth on this matter will out. I believe Malta will play an important part when this happens. The primacy of EU law over national law was never included in any of the original treaties. EU treaties are agreements between sovereign states. Therefore, it is always the sovereign state that has the final say and not the other way round. EU primacy is merely a doctrine of the European Courts of Justice. It is a doctrine built purely on sand. Yet Maltese governments have accepted it as gospel. By accepting the primacy of EU law, Malta has, for now, put aside any possible chance to stand up to undemocratic, harmful, distasteful and unacceptable legislation handed down from Brussels.

When successive governments accepted the doctrine of the primacy of EU law, they also threw away our ability to say no. And since we are a small country, our influence on any decision affecting us is slight. Successive governments have disregarded Malta’s best tool to contribute seriously to a better and more democratic EU. Which is why, over the last few weeks, it has been simply pathetic and painful to see our MEPs and the Prime Minister himself demanding “this” and “that” to happen within the EU ... and then watch them once again being totally ignored.

Lately, we’ve heard them demand that the EU does something to stop the “cycle of death” and illegal immigration in the Mediterranean. Yet, we all know already that the EU will not lift a finger to solve this annual infliction on our dignity and conscience. This year, thousands of men, women and children will again die again in our sea. Since we have ignored the tools to make our demands count in the EU, the demands of our Prime Minister is only seen as the annoying yapping of a subservient local governor. Like in previous years, the EU will no doubt turn away from the problem until the issue momentarily goes away again next winter.

Another recent demand by our Prime Minister was for the conflict in Libya to be given more attention. Malta, of all EU countries, is the most affected by the events in Libya. Yet the EU will not even make a token gesture to Libya or to our worries. The great powers are far more directly affected by other conflicts. We, therefore, see urgent talks involving Merkel and Hollande actively and directly with both sides in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. And bound by the EU decision to “recognise” only one side in the Libyan conflict, our government does nothing as things worsen for us by the day. Our government should be talking to both warring sides and actively seeking resolution. It is our legal duty we are not taking up. When we see how the large countries look after their own interest first and foremost, why shouldn’t Malta do the same?

We all knew that it was stupid to put the hard-earned tax money of the Maltese in Greek bonds. But our government had no say in the matter. They could not refuse. The support to Greece was imposed on us by the EU even though it was sheer folly. We must now accept that much of this money has been lost. The Greeks will not pay it back. In fact, the interest paid on these bonds has already been lowered far below the market rate, so for some time we have been getting a bad return on our investment. But now, the EU will either have to meet Greek’s demands to pay even less or accept the failure of the Euro project. It will no doubt pump in more billions of our money into Greece’s money pit. And again our government must pretend to have some influence on this issue.

Our smiling Prime Minister tries hard to look like he feels at home with the rest of the EU demi-gods (lately, on TV, Merkel was seen shooing him away so she could talk to someone else). And when our Prime Minister make demands that “… the Greek debt will be repaid in full, before the consideration of any concessions” and statements such as “We are against a debt haircut” it might make for great marketing on local (Maltese) TV, but the rest of the EU views these silly demands as mildly embarrassing grandstanding by a nobody.

It is no wonder that no one will listen to our Prime Minister. With just 0.1 per cent of voting rights, Malta has no real power in the EU. The veto power we once had has been given away and we have accepted the primacy of EU law over our Constitution. The result is that we have no say in the directives that comes from Brussels and they can be imposed on us against the wishes of a majority of the Maltese. Malta deserves better. We have had enough of being used to get the few ‘hbieb’ into power and getting nothing but grief in return.

 

It is time for some serious change.