The Maltese government has allowed EU rules to be greenlighted without realising the harm they would inflict on the country, Roberta Metsola said on Tuesday.
In some cases the government even fails to present a position on an EU level, the European Parliament president said, in a scathing review of Malta's government on the European stage.
In a chat with Malta Chamber of Commerce’s head of media Rachel Bondi Attard, Metsola lashed out at the government for not doing enough to protect the country's interests in the EU on issues that disproportionately impact it.
EU treaties allow countries to put on an 'emergency break' when EU law disproportionately harms a member state, yet Malta is failing to do so.
“In the past five years, we have lost our self-confidence as Malta. We need to be able to say this (a particular policy) is going to harm us and we don’t have to be afraid to say it. We have particular characteristics and particular disadvantages from a logistical perspective,” she said.
For example, Germany has spoken out over plans to phase out combustion engines.
Maltese MEPs should also work together and be in the EP’s most important committees, such as the committee for economy and finance, and the committee for transport.
Metsola also called on the Maltese government to nominate an EU Commissioner as soon as possible.
Chris Fearne, who was Malta’s European Commission nominee, backed out of the role after he was charged in court over the Vitals hospital deal.
Metsola said countries are already lobbying for portfolios in the commission, and Malta is out of that discussion for the moment.
“Make no mistake, if we waste any more time, we will not have an effective enough portfolio,” she said.
A country’s commissioner is not only responsible for a portfolio on an EU level but is also the member state’s ambassador - alerting their government whenever their state is impacted by an EU law, Metsola said.
'Not afraid to debate'
While other candidates have engaged in political debates in the run-up to the European elections on Saturday, Metsola has been conspicuously absent.
Though polls show her the overwhelming favourite, she has not addressed any Nationalist Party press conferences.
Asked about this, Metsola said she is precluded from debating other European Parliament candidates because of her dual role as European Parliament president.
“European Parliament rules preclude me from debating with MEPs I have a duty to protect,” Metsola said.
Comparing herself to parliament speaker, Anglu Farrugia, Metsola said she is responsible for anything that happens to MEPs, including sanctioning them if they do something wrong or defending them if needed.
The Labour Party and its candidates have repeatedly challenged Metsola to debate and criticised her for not accepting.
“I debated anyone and everyone in the last 30 years. I’m not afraid to debate anyone,” she said.
On her visit to Israel
During the hour-long interview, Metsola addressed her much-criticised visit to Israel last October, just days after the Hamas attack.
Metsola said she went to Israel to speak to people on the ground and to lobby to “turn back electricity and water and save lives” in Gaza.
Israel had already begun its deadly retaliation by the time of Metsola’s visit.
Describing events in Gaza as “atrocities”, Metsola said the European Parliament has consistently called for a permanent ceasefire, a stop to the atrocities, a two-state solution, and for aid to be quadrupled.
“When I visited the Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem and called for a two-state solution, I was booed,” she said.
Metsola said that a lot of hope is pinned on a United States peace plan that could see an end to atrocities.
“I hope Malta can use its expertise to help form part of a solution,” she said.
Metsola accused the Labour government of trying to “demonise” anyone who disagrees with it.
It is unbelievable that the PL is conjuring up claims that she wants to send Maltese children to war in Ukraine.
She said the European Parliament wants peace, but "peace without justice and integrity is not peace... That is why the European Parliament is on the side of Ukraine.
The irony is that while in Europe the Maltese government’s position is identical to that of the EP, in Malta the electorate is being fed the line "that Metsola wants war".