Malta : an island microstate as a member of the European Union; the implications of smallness and insularity on the negotiations for full membership with the European Union

Abstract

With the advent of Malta joining as a full member state the European Union on 1st May 2004, it is impossible not to question such occurrence. In Malta, this issue has been, in the last decades, highly politicised. Although it is often argued that due to their size, small states do not usually possess the needed human and physical capacities to conduct bilateral and multilateral negotiations independently, it is nonetheless necessary to integrate with other states since the world has become increasingly more integrated and the number of issues to be dealt with in the international arena has grown. In 1970, the then Nationalist Party government in office, signed an Association Agreement with the then so called, European Community. Since then, negotiations have evolved and Malta will, as from 1st May, be a member state of the European Union. Yet, if one were to analyse the debates throughout such negotiations, one would find a stress on the smallness of the Maltese Islands, and thus on the need to formulate special arrangements (derogi) to overcome the general difficulties that island microstates face in general. This dissertation attempts to find a link between smallness and insularity and the negotiations between Malta and the European Union. Especially on the part of the Maltese negotiators, there was an emphasis on the disadvantages that Malta faces in being a small island, especially with respect to higher import costs, transport costs for goods and persons, and the domestic costs of the production of goods and services, including distribution services.