In a letter addressed to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Labour MEP Agius Saliba expressed concern after being informed that the Maltese course would not be offered this year due to a low number of applicants.
Only four employees had signed up for the course, prompting its cancellation.
While one may rightly laud Agius Saliba's stance and effort, at the same time it is opportune to make aware of the respective applicable rules and guidelines that govern such Maltese language courses offered by the respective EU institution.
Maltese was recognised as an official EU language in 2004. The EU supports multilingualism in its programmes and the work of its institutions. To that effect, the European University Institute, through the Centre for Academic Literacies and Languages (CALL), regularly organises language courses for the English, French, German, Italian and Spanish languages, being the mainstream languages with a regular significant uptake across the EU.
Additionally, it offers similar courses for additional languages (under which falls Maltese) before each new term (mid-September, mid-November, mid-March), subject to the condition that at least 5 people express interest within 5 days from when the application date is communicated, failing which, from an economic perspective, it stands to reason that the course will not be organised. The greater the number of participants, the lower the cost per person.
The regret is not so much that the course will not be offered this year as the fact that an unexpectedly low number of applicants expressed their interest to join the course.
One augurs that next year there will be a higher number of interested applicants that ultimately will not only strengthen and showcase the Maltese language as one of the official EU languages but also locally preserve the richness of our language.
The Maltese anthem
I wonder how, to date, no one has ever questioned the appropriateness of a particular jarring word that is still found in the lyrics of our national anthem.
The word 'jaħkimha' (ruling or conquering by force), while it might have been in place at the time that Dun Karm penned the lyrics for a musical piece written by Robert Samut, today definitely seems out of place, considering that we have come to cherish so much our hard-gained sovereignty and freedom from all previous conquerors.
Can it be that we could somehow find a more suitable word replacement that truly reflects Malta's current status, say 'imexxieha' instead of 'jaħkimha'?
I am eager to know what others out there think about the matter.
Palestinian statehood
Everyone speaks of a two-state solution for peace between Israel and Palestine, but only a few countries have accepted both states. How can there be a real solution if countries don't even accept one state?
In 1980, the European Community acted as a paradigm setter when it came forward with the Venice Declaration, recognising the Palestinian right to self-determination, demanding the inclusion of the PLO in negotiations, stressing the need for Israel to end the occupation and underscoring the illegality of Israeli settlements.
While the Venice Declaration has been a norm-setter in many respects, it was nonetheless a far cry from the position of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which in the same year affirmed Palestine's right to establish an independent state of its own.
Europe's framing of Palestine's right to statehood has been rather ambiguous ever since. In the late 1970s and 1980s, the European Community spoke about the Palestinians' right "to self-determination with all that this implies" and the "legitimate right of the Palestinian people to give effective expression to its national identity". In the late 1990s, when the late Arafat threatened to unilaterally declare Palestinian statehood, the EU came up with the Berlin Declaration, expressing "its readiness to consider the recognition of a Palestinian State in due course". A decade later, this was replaced with "when appropriate".
Needless to say, the timeframe of "due course" and specific parameters of "when appropriate" were never defined.
The stakes are high, but the situation looks increasingly desperate from all sides. With a devastatingly high death toll and the devastation of life across Gaza, as well as the continued occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and with a final status agreement increasingly unlikely, something must change.
Over the last three decades, the EU has failed to prevent the entrenchment of the occupation, which fragments Palestinian land and communities and makes a two-state solution increasingly unfeasible. After 55 years of unending occupation, it is time for a paradigm shift, a new Venice Declaration, in which the EU and its member states join the international community in recognising Palestine as a state.
The EU should indeed take bold steps forward in the Middle East Peace Process. EU member states that have not already done so, including Malta, should recognise the state of Palestine, following in the footsteps of Norway, Ireland and Spain.
Dr. Mark Said is a lawyer