Transposition tables, toil and tears...... true tales from the accession

Abstract

The significance of Malta's application to join the European Union in 1990 and of its eventual accession in 2004 cannot be over-stated. The transposition of EC Directives by European Union member states is an interesting phenomenon and the Maltese transposition experience was a very complex and in several ways also a peculiar exercise that deserves closer attention. Transposition ordinarily refers to the ongoing obligation applicable to all member states to implement into national Jaw the Directives adopted by the EC. The transposition of EC Directives by Malta as an applicant state in the immediate pre-accession period proved even more interesting, challenging and intense Malta's moves towards accession of the European Union, the relative negotiations and consequential adoption of Community rules into national law introduced new concepts, new principles, new ways of doing things, and perhaps inevitably also - up to a degree - a new language with its own jargon.