The Maltese parliament and EU affairs

Abstract

The Maltese Parliament has involved itself in EU affairs since 2003 when it established a system for monitoring the government’s EU negotiating position. This was complemented in 2010 with a system for managing the Early Warning Mechanism. However, Parliament’s involvement does not automatically imply an effective role and Malta manifests several of the limitations associated with Westminster, upon which it is based, as well as the specific characteristics associated with small legislatures. This paper analyses how the Parliament manages EU affairs, what factors limit that involvement and concludes by stating that calls for mainstreaming EU affairs in the parliament’s work are unlikely to bear fruit in the Maltese context because the factors determining the degree of involvement are diverse while the Maltese political system enjoys high levels of popular endorsement, suggesting that there are no incentives to recommend change.