On Saturday, the Maltese electorate heads to the European Parliament polls to elect the six members that will represent Malta at Europe’s highest institution for the coming five years.
But what is, exactly, at stake on Saturday? If one were to only selectively listen to political leaders and their pundits, one could easily be forgiven for falsely believing that the main issue is which of the country’s two main political parties acquire the most seats at the European Parliament, or the extent to which the gaping divide between those two parties that cropped up in last year’s general election has been narrowed or widened.
Both the Nationalist and Labour Parties are campaigning hard to win those two battles but, in reality, is that what next week’s election is all about?
Far from it.
When the dust has settled in the wake of next week’s vote counting, the Maltese electorate will have, for better or worse, chosen its representatives in Brussels and Strasburg – representatives that will be tasked with not only securing the best for Malta from the European Union – no small feat for a small country with a mere six, seats at the European lawmaking institution – but also with leaving their own Maltese stamp on European politics by making valid contributions in Europe’s lawmaking institution.
A mere six seats yes, but, as in many other instances in life, it is not the size of the contingent but rather how it is used that counts. Placing Maltese MEPs on the right committees and the drafting of the right reports will not only raise their profile in European circles and their respective European parties, it will also serve the country in good stead by pushing forward its interests and earning the country respect.
Some of Malta’s MEPs have done just that over the last 10 years of Malta’s European project, others have fallen short of the mark.
But once the backs have been slapped and the champagne has been uncorked, Malta’s newly elected MEPs will need to begin putting the pettier aspects of what has been a very partisan campaign, as is, unfortunately, always the case, behind them and begin working in the national interest. Once the die is cast next Saturday, that all needs to be left behind here in Malta before the country’s MEPs set off on the road to Brussels.
Once the campaign is safely behind us, let us put the seemingly eternal partisan divides, as well as new divisions that have cropped up over recent weeks, behind us and put the campaign’s more negative slants down to a learning experience. This is, after all, a question of Malta and the EU, and not one of Nationalists and Labourites.
What the country needs and what it has been sorely lacking is a fully unified team at the European Parliament – a team that would work together, in unison, for the country. But in addition to making Malta’s mark with valid laws, reports and opinions, Malta’s representatives should also present a common front on which to table issues that are truly of the national, and of their constituents’, interest.
And the country’s chosen six will certainly have their work cut out for them.
With an electorate today far savvier on the workings of the institution now that we have had two MEP terms, and with the EP’s recent ‘citizenship for sale’ debacle of a debate having raised much more awareness, Malta’s MEPs will also be facing a far more discerning Maltese public.
The first MEP election was more a matter of the electorate making blind choices since no candidate at the time had any parliamentary record to speak of. The last MEP election was a far different story, with comparable track records and the electorate’s five years’ experience understanding the powers of the institution and having a better grasp of its complicities and inner workings.
And now, as opposed to 2004 and perhaps 2008, we know much more.
Once in the EP, it is to be hoped that Malta’s MEPs will be able to place the political divisions – some bitter – at home behind them so as to all pull together the national, as opposed to the partisan, rope that has characterised the MEP election yet again.
This is, after all, a question of Malta and the EU - not Malta against the EU or Nationalists against Labourites – and it also presents an opportunity for our representatives in Brussels to rise above the petty politics of campaigns gone by.
Similarly, the electorate needs to rise above partisan politics and choose the candidates who they believe will best represent Malta in the EU, and not simply vote along traditional party lines. This is, after all, not a national election, and it presents yet another ideal opportunity to rise above those party lines and make an educated, objective decision. Let us all hope that the country gets what it truly deserves with the new crop of MEPs it will send to Brussels and Strasbourg, and not the result of blinkered, partisan voting that has been embedded in the national conscience for far too long now.