Fewer Maltese believe that their voice counts in their own country than the EU average, the results of the latest EU Parlemeter survey show.
While 53% of Maltese believe that their voice does count in Malta, it is far lower than the 58% EU average who believe that their voice counts in their own country.
The European Parliament's Autumn 2021 Eurobarometer (EB) survey, also known as the Parlemeter, is the third EB survey conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey was conducted between November 2021 - December 2021.
Malta's 53% statistic is actually 3 percentage points lower than it was in the November-December 2020 survey
The survey shows that 45% of Maltese disagreed with the statement that their voice is heard in Malta, while 3% responded 'don't know'.
In terms of European Union level, only 46% of Maltese agree with the statement that their voice counts in the EU. This is higher than the EU average of 43%. 51% of Maltese respondents said they disagree with the statement.
The Parlemeter also asked respondents to highlight which values the EU Parliament should defend as a matter of priority. Each respondent was asked to give a maximum of three answers. Democracy as a value was added for the first time in this survey and was chosen as the most important one to be defended by the Parliament by a plurality of respondents in eleven countries, including Malta. In Malta this was followed by the protection of human rights in the EU and worldwide, and a tie between the rule of law and equality between women and men.
In response to a separate question, the statistics also show that action against Climate Change is the number one priority issue that Maltese would like to see addressed by the European Parliament. Public health came in at second place and migration and asylum in third.
Knowledge about the work of the European Parliament has increased in most countries since October 2019. In Malta, 24% of respondents said that they have a low level of knowledge about the institution's work, however, this is 20 percentage points less than 2019, thus showing that more and more people are understanding the EU Parliament's work. 65% say they have an average level of knowledge of the Parliament's work and 10% say they have a high level of knowledge.
The survey respondents were also asked about their view of the European Parliament. 39% of Maltese respondents have a positive image of it, 49% are neutral and 10% have a negative image. 2% did not know.
Asked whether they would personally like to see the European Parliament play a more important or less important role, 71% of Maltese answered 'more important'.
The respondents were also asked about their view of their country's membership in the EU. The results show that the majority of Maltese respondents, 62%, believe that membership in the EU is a good thing, while only 6% see it as a bad thing. 31% say it is neither good nor bad and 1% answered that they did not know.
As for whether Maltese respondents believe that Malta has, taking everything into account, benefited from being an EU member, 89% of Maltese respondents agree.
Respondents were also asked to, regardless as to whether or not they personally believe Malta has benefitted from being an EU member, state the main reasons people think Malta has benefited from the EU. The number one reason highlighted is that the EU contributes to Malta's economic growth. This was followed by the EU bringing Maltese people new work opportunities, and membership of the EU improving co-operation between Malta and other EU states.
In terms of the main reasons why people think Malta has not benefitted from being an EU member, the top two were that Maltese people have very little influence on EU level decisions, and that issues that are important for Maltese people are best dealt with at the national level.