The government last week presented a White Paper to give more autonomy and more accountability to the Maltese Parliament.

The first part is aimed to give more administrative and financial independence to the highest institution of the land. The second part deals with the setting up of a mechanism to better control the behaviour of Members of Parliament.

The White Paper has not raised any reaction from the Opposition so far. Maybe, the Labour Party was too engrossed in its holding of its first congress to find time to comment about the proposals made. It is hoped that the PL will soon come up with its ideas on this matter.

Whether the White Paper will be transformed into law in this legislature is hard to foresee, given that we are close to the end and there are other pending issues to be debated in the House. But what is being proposed should not be shelved, even if the election is held before this White Paper becomes law.

Giving more autonomy to the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives is a subject that has already been discussed at length, and bar some fine-tuning to the proposals made by the Leader of the House, Dr Tonio Borg, in the White Paper, what is being suggested should not find too many hurdles.

If anything, it is the second part that needs to be tougher. The setting up of the Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards to deal with breach of ethics, including the abuse of parliamentary privilege by MPs, is a step in the right direction, but the proposed powers that the commissioner will be given are too weak.

It is being proposed that if the commissioner finds an MP guilty of some breach, the commissioner’s report has to go through the House Committee on Privileges, which needs to approve it before it then goes before the House for a final verdict. This is a rather lengthy way of doing things, and still leaves everything in the hands of the House when it should be someone independent of its functions who should decide on matters pertaining to MPs’ behaviour.

The positive aspect about this is that at least private citizens will have the opportunity to challenge what is said in Parliament. At present, MPs have immunity on whatever they say in the House, and there have been occasions when MPs abused this power. If the White Paper is implemented, then people will have the right to file a complaint with the commissioner about what was said about them.

This is an important step forward, but it is not enough.