I get quite taken aback when someone asks me why the EU is not doing anything about widespread corruption in Malta. It does happen quite frequently and I sincerely feel that these things should be solved by us Maltese, not by Europeans.
Resistance and opposition has to be home-grown because, quite frankly, the EU is not going to save us from ourselves. It doesn’t have the tools to do it and it has never been designed to do it in the first place and thank god for that.
Now, it has to be said that the EU is not just a big massive market where trade and commerce is made. It is also a union of democratic values but it is evident, for many of us, who follow justice and home affairs in the EU closely, that it is very difficult to compare one justice system of one EU country to another because we all have very different systems. Yes, it is true, it is easy to determine whether a country respects the fundamental values of Montesquieu’s separation fo powers but when you go into the finer details of the justice systems the vision gets hazy.
Quite clearly, we do not need the EU, or any one else for that matter, to tell us what we can do to improve our democratic standards or how to beef up our justice system. We know what needs to be done to introduce safeguard mechanisms on freedom of expression and the rule of law generally.
There are myriad of reasons the EU does not a raise a finger in the face of clear failures of the police to act against key members of this administration. Chief among them is that many EU governments (and I would say the majority) do not want the EU to meddle in their own internal affairs. They simply do not want the EU to enter into the national fray on these issues in the first place.
Prime among them is the UK government which is on its way out (or so it seems) which thinks that the EU has encroached too much in internal affairs of individual EU member states. One other reason is that there is a perception that corruption is widespread in a number of other EU countries.
Take Article 7 of the EU treaty, for example. It is called rather figuratively the nuclear option. When a specific government of an EU country is perceived as violating human rights or falling short of democratic standards, the EU would suspend EU voting rights for the targeted EU country. This is not something being discussed in relation to Malta, it must be said, but it was triggered recently in relation to Poland. It was also mentioned for a number of months in the past in relation to Hungary. As you can see it is a very drastic option but barely possible. We all know that Poland won’t end up losing its voting rights because for it to happen all other EU governments have to agree unanimously that Poland should loose its voting rights and Hungary has already pronounced itself against this to happen.
So Article 7, which deals specifically with democratic governance and human rights and to some extent rule of law, is there as a weak deterrent more than any thing else.
“But the European Parliament is vociferous on these issues,” I hear you say. Well, the European Parliament is vociferous on many issues as it should be. The European Parliament discusses anything and everything under the sun. Suffice it to say that it is in favour of abortion and it has been for a number of years. Does it mean that Malta should suddenly introduce abortion? No and a big one at that!
European Parliament reports on abortion and the rule of law are just that, reports. The European Parliament is adamantly against our cash-for-passports scheme and yet it is perfectly legal and allowed in the EU (at least until now).
It is important that the way act and behave shows leadership as we have shown time and again by defending our tax system in the EU. We should not surrender our powers to the EU if things go horribly wrong in Malta as indeed happened.
Best is that we all understand that responsibilities lay squarely on our shoulders. We should stand up and speak up and not wait for the EU to do something about it. If and when European or International fora express interest in our justice systems and the rule of law, we would do well in welcoming them to Malta because we have nothing to fear or be ashamed of.
Ours is an open and welcoming country but it is still a sovereign state. The future of our beloved country still lies solely in our hands. Since independence, Malta made great strides and I believe we can make many more if only we believe in ourselves a little bit more.
MP David Stellini is the Opposition spokesperson on European Affairs and Brexit. He is also President of the Nationalist Party Administrative Council.