Suchergebnisse

1. Introduction -- 2. Europeanization -- 3. Maltese political development and the question of 'Europe' -- 4. The road to 'Europe' -- 5. Malta as a member of the EU -- 6. Malta's integration into the Customs Union -- 7. EU membership and the Maltese agricultural sector -- 8. An assessment of Malta's Europeanization experience.

In an attempt to decentre the debate of democracy promotion in the Mediterranean, this article applies social constructivism to an analysis of the work undertaken by two International Parliamentary Bodies in the Mediterranean. With a focus on the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, we analyse how effective their role can be without coercion and move on to discuss whether newly formed democratic parliaments, as in Tunisia, may represent a more legitimate and viable source of parliamentary-driven democracy promotion.

In an attempt to decentre the debate of democracy promotion in the Mediterranean, this article applies social constructivism to an analysis of the work undertaken by two International Parliamentary Bodies in the Mediterranean. With a focus on the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, we analyse how effective their role can be without coercion and move on to discuss whether newly formed democratic parliaments, as in Tunisia, may represent a more legitimate and viable source of parliamentary-driven democracy promotion. ; peer-reviewed

Chapter 5 ; When Malta launched its Council of the EU Presidency in January 2017, the Government outlined its intention "to contribute", "to focus" and "to deliver" in various sectors but it was only in the area of social inclusion where Malta intended "to lead" with the aim that "we hope our experiences can rub off on our European partners". This statement reflected the reality, both domestic and European, of the state of social inclusion (and LGBTIQ rights in particular) across Europe; on one side, it showed that Malta had made significant advances in the area of civil rights and felt able to lead while the EU's track record was more mixed, reflective of its limited competence in this area and, some would argue, a lack of political will from the member states to allow the Union to be involved in this area of civil rights. [excerpt] ; peer-reviewed

This article analyses the impact of ten years of EU membership on the Maltese parliament. ; peer-reviewed

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. ; peer-reviewed

This paper discusses the issue of how size impacts a country's experience of EU membership, in particular its ability to control the implementation of EU policy. Small countries share several characteristics at an EU level, in that they avoid isolation in the Council and depend on partnership with larger member states. In terms of Malta, this was shown to be the case but other factors appear to have brought this about, in particular the country's political history. In terms of Europeanization, small states adopt flexible arrangements to manage membership with public servants empowered in the process. This was not the case for Malta where membership saw greater involvement for public servants in policy making but no increase in actual power due to a heavy centralisation of decision-making which empowered the political class. Where size appears to have played a role in the country's Europeanization experience was in terms of how that centralisation process has allowed the government to control the monitoring of its implementation of EU policy by third parties, including the Commission. ; peer-reviewed

Europeanization aims to analyse domestic change caused by European integration. The European Union has assumed greater and greater significance over the lives of its citizens as its borders continue to enlarge, its competence increase and its complex network of official and unofficial decision-making become more embedded within a multi-level system of governance that brings governments and civil society from across the twenty-five members into greater contact. In this environment, domestic political systems and actors change and adapt. That change is what dominates current research in Europeanization. The easiest and most recognizable impact of Europeanization is upon government structures, processes and policies. But attention has also come to be focused upon how EU membership impacts civil society and, more importantly, norms and values. While research in these areas is still in its infancy, this paper will seek to outline what Europeanization is, how it impacts its domestic political systems and what consequences it may have for civil society and the values that civil society groups promote. ; peer-reviewed