Malta is the smallest candidate country in area as well as in population size. And if it joins the European Union it will be the smallest Member State. When the Maltese government applied for EU membership in 1990, two years before the Maastricht Treaty, people believed that the European Community - as it was then called - was a sort of economic club of European nation-states. People thought that a huge union would not overwhelm tiny Malta.

Since the Maastricht Treaty, however, the political aims of European integration have emerged and the road to European federalism and single statehood has been paved. Yet, many Maltese europhiles still believe that the EU is some sort of economic club where Malta would have a voice at par with larger Member States. Others, who are aware of the political aims of the European Union still believe that Malta would not lose sovereignty: they see membership as the sharing of sovereignty within a powerful union, where Malta would have a say in the decision-making mechanism. They also believe the euro-speak concerning subsidiarity.

Partnership with the EU

One major difference from other candidate countries is that in Malta the main opposition party - the Malta Labour Party (MLP), presently holding over 50 per cent at the polls - is categorically against Malta’s membership bid. This has sustained the NO side to a high degree. The Malta Labour Party has proposed “partnership” rather than “‘membership”, given the fact that the evolving European Union subscribes to the “one-size-fits-all” philosophy.

The MLP maintains that much of EU legislation, policies and strategies (although they may apply to larger countries) do not apply to Malta. The MLP dismisses claims that if Malta does not join the EU it would be isolated. Instead, it maintains that free trade agreements with the EU (and other States), as well as other aspects of cooperation with the EU, would ensure that Malta would not lose its right of self-rule and self-determination, while pursuing an international agenda.

Tripled information funding

In the meantime the Government of Malta appears to be totally obsessed with EU membership, and it has often been accused that it has ignored the administration of this country (together with it finances) in its focused pursuit of membership. Government is pumping a lot of money in financing the Malta-EU Information Centre (MIC), which is supposedly an objective and neutral “information centre” but which, in reality, is just another pro-membership propaganda machine that has joined the predominantly pro-membership media. For 2002 alone, the government has tripled the funding for MIC to nearly one million Maltese Lira (2,5 million Euros) - to cover “EU information” for a population of only 385 000.

According to calculations based on informative sources, the referendum will be held in March 2003. There have been many claims that a referendum would be highly unbalanced since the pro-membership faction, including MIC, is better equipped financially to promote its cause. The Malta Labour Party has dismissed the referendum as irrelevant in Malta’s case since it claims that the forthcoming general election (due in 2003) would suffice for the electorate to decide on membership since both main parties are polarised on this very crucial issue.

Election decisive on EU-membership

No third party is represented in parliament so, in the circumstances, an election would be conclusively decisive on the membership issue. No boycott of the referendum, however, has yet been announced although some within the anti-membership faction have aired this idea. It is however generally thought that a referendum boycott would only play in the hands of the YES side.

Advocating a referendum, the government and the YES side maintain that EU membership is a separate issue and therefore has no connection with the general elections. (It should be noted that the present government had promised a referendum on the EU only in 1998 when the party was in opposition and campaigning for the snap elections called by the MLP after 22 months in government and when Malta’s EU application was “frozen”).

According to recent polls, around 20-25 per cent of the electorate are still undecided, the YES side is currently ahead with about five per cent. Around two years ago, the same poll sources had resulted in that the undecided accounted for about 30-35 per cent and the NO side was ahead. This means that for the past two years the trend appears to have favoured the YES side, and it is thought that this trend still persists.

Pursuing peace and stability

The Campaign for National Independence was set up as a non-governmental organisation in 1999 to counter the MIC propaganda machine. Shortly afterwards, the “Yes for Europe” movement was set up in order to counter CNI and further complement the whole YES side. The CNI believes that if Malta opts for membership, not only would Malta lose its sovereignty, but it would also end up in its old role as a military outpost.

Malta is today a constitutionally neutral island-State. But its location in the centre of the Mediterranean on the periphery of Europe would render it a frontier-State upon membership. The constitutional aim of pursuing peace and stability (particularly in the Mediterranean) has since at least the late 1980s changed in consequence of Malta’s change in direction. Malta’s application for EU membership has halted Malta’s progression and emergence as an independent nation-State.

Relinquishing independence

Malta’s prior vocation, as a neutral Mediterranean State, explains why Mediterranean citizens do not need a Visa to enter Malta. Should Malta join, this would change and most Mediterranean citizens would need a visa for Malta. Other than hindering commercial relationships that exist with these countries, this is not conducive to healthy relations with the non-EU countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

Throughout the ages Malta has been a colony of some sort and had gained independence only in 1964. CNI believes that Malta is again in the process of relinquishing its independence - as it did more than 200 years ago when the Maltese asked the British for protection. Today the Maltese government is seeking protection from the European Union

Sharon Ellul Bonici Press Officer CNI Observer of the TEAM Board

Sharon can be reached on e-mail: seb@onvol.net