We joined the EU to improve our standard of living and adopt higher standards on consumer protection, the environment and safety. In fact, the EU has the highest standards in the world in all these areas.

So, we should have the highest water quality standards, right? Not really. The people of Xgħajra don’t benefit from EU standards. They have to contend with sewage bubbling out a few hundred metres out at sea as will those who get skin rashes and infections while swimming in the area.

Being in the EU, we should have the safest building regulations, right? Not really for Jean Paul Sofia and Miriam Pace who lost their lives due to negligence on all fronts, including on the part of the authorities who failed to implement the EU CE marking rules for bricks and other construction products.

I worked in the EU for the last 21 years. Europe is a fascinating force for the good of our citizens. But it’s useless having a mountain of laws in theory when you don’t find them protecting you in practice.

The EU encompasses more than just opportunities and funds; it also upholds rights and standards that ensure a high quality of life for all citizens. During encounters on the streets, home visits, or market visits, people often express their concerns to me about the EU’s tolerance of the government’s wrongdoing. The reality is that in several cases shared with me, the EU has established standards and enacted laws to safeguard its citizens, yet these are not consistently enforced in Malta by the government and its authorities.

A prime example is the application of CE marking. When a product bears a CE mark, it signifies compliance with health, safety, and environmental protection requirements necessary for sale within the European Economic Area (EEA). Many bricks and concrete products manufactured in Malta fail to meet EU safety standards because the government has neglected to enforce CE marking regulations in the construction industry. This issue prompted me to provide information to the board of the public inquiry investigating the death of Jean Paul Sofia. I welcome the inquiry’s recommendation for the consumer authority to take proactive measures to ensure that construction materials placed on the market adhere to CE markings. But it is now the government’s responsibility to ensure that national authorities (led by its appointees) fulfil their duties.

Another example pertains to the government’s failure to adhere to EU standards regarding sewage treatment. In recent months, there have been numerous reports of sewage discharge into the sea. In 2022, the European Commission initiated legal action against Malta for dumping sewage into the sea. Last summer, several beaches, including Qui Si Sana, Fond Għadir, Tigne, Balluta, St George’s Bay, Buġibba, and Birżebbuġa, were closed due to contamination. Just last week, I shared footage on my Facebook page showing sewage observed off the coast of Xagħra. Despite the government’s statements that most of Malta’s bathing waters are ‘excellent’, the situation on the ground indicates a rise in beaches with poor water quality. According to EU law, Malta is bound to treat all urban and rural drainage before discharge. We are evidently breaking EU rules daily. This is why I asked the Auditor General to investigate the matter and conduct a performance audit. It is unacceptable for Malta to have invested €60 million of EU funds in sewage treatment in recent years but raw human waste continues to end up at sea!

A third example in a long list of paper tigers, concerns the independence of public media. On several occasions, PBS has been found to be partial, with Television Malta censoring significant news items that are damning on the government or views that criticise the government. An analysis revealed that for every comment from the Opposition Nationalist Party (PN), PBS broadcast 13 comments from the governing Labour Party (PL). This goes against the public interest and the right to be informed. Under the European Media Freedom Protection Act, the head and the governing board of TVM should be appointed in a transparent, open, and non-discriminatory manner. TVM should also provide a plurality of information and opinions, in an impartial manner. What sense does it make to have Minister Owen Bonnici going to Brussels to welcome the European Media Freedom Act but in Malta his own government does exactly the opposite!

We joined Europe to secure higher standards in governance, democracy and quality of life. Instead, due to incompetence and lack of political will, government is breaching most of these standards, effectively depriving us of the benefits of EU membership. As part of my MEP campaign, I am outlining my vision and priorities if elected to the European Parliament. Ensuring the implementation of EU laws and standards will be among my foremost objectives. Labour MEPs cannot do that. They are too busy adoring ‘Robert Muscat’ and closing ranks on the daily scandals.

I am dedicated entirely to ensuring that the rights we gained upon joining the EU are upheld in practice, including by empowering organisations and citizens advocating for their rights. I will continue to take concrete actions to counteract the government’s laissez-faire approach. Unfortunately, Labour MEPs seem more preoccupied with shielding the government than ensuring the effective implementation of EU laws for the benefit of all EU citizens. On 8 June, I urge you to use your vote to ensure EU standards and laws do not remain a paper tiger.

https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/128344/highest_eu_standards_only_on_paper

Seeing the vice-president of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič touring Delimara with the then (disgraced) energy minister Konrad Mizzi, heaping praise on the Electrogas monument-to-corruption tanker made my blood boil, like it did to many other Maltese of goodwill. That image will be stamped in the hall of infamy in Malta’s ups and downs of 20 years of EU membership.

Yes, that was 2015 but, already then, you could smell the rot in a project which was the likely motive for the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Wasn’t membership of the EU also supposed to mean better oversight over the excesses of our own governments? Shouldn’t the commission serve as the guardian of the treaty which includes the rule of law?

This is the question several people ask me during town hall meetings and when knocking on doors. They feel that the EU is turning a blind eye to bad governance and corruption.

Fighting corruption and mismanagement

In the past few years, the European Commission has recognised that better safeguards are needed to protect both the EU’s and national interests when it comes to the rule of law and the clean use of public money. A series of EU laws were proposed to ensure this. Some examples include the setting up of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to investigate financial crimes, a directive for more competitive tendering and the more recent anti-SLAPP law (Daphne’s Law) to fight attempts to muzzle the free press.

But while Malta votes in favour of these laws in Brussels, probably for no other reason than not to look bad,  implementation, as Alfred Sant once called it, amounts to little more than “tbażwir”. The launch of EPPO was delayed, with the whole of the EU kept waiting while Malta took its sweet time to finalise the three nominations it was supposed to make.

Competitive tendering in public procurement? One State entity alone, Project Green, led by Labour MEP candidate Steve Ellul, had already made 600 direct orders in the first six months of its existence.

Ah, yes, and then there was the investigation into why Malta was taking so long to transpose the EU’s anti-money laundering directive into national legislation. It takes some imagination to explain if this is all by accident or a premeditated approach.

Ensuring the government plays by the EU rules in Malta

Labour’s four MEPs are simply incapable of ensuring their party in government applies EU law properly or safeguards the rule of law.

They’re way too busy, conflating party and country, and denouncing critics for “shaming Malta”.

Now we have better tools to ensure to stamp out corruption and abuse of power in Malta, at least with regard to those aspects which fall within the EU remit. What is needed now is that these tools are effectively deployed and not lost en route from Brussels to Malta.

A third MEP for the opposition forces would go a long way to allow further scrutiny on the government. I am committed to stand up to the government that abuses our rights as EU citizens. I am committed to use such new EU tools to the benefit of all of us in Malta and Gozo.

Use of OLAF can be such new tool

It turns out that Kurt Buhagiar, the developer behind the Corradino site where Jean Paul Sofia lost his life, has had no less than three applications for EU funds accepted and granted the maximum allowable limit by the Maltese managing authority of the European Agricultural Fund.

There are hundreds of applicants who never managed to benefit from any EU funding over years while Buhagiar hits the jackpot every time he decides to play.

The €360,000 in taxpayer money was ostensibly for a goat farm. Local media had rung the bell on this development already in September last year. The Sofia public inquiry also mentioned this project as smelling of fraud of EU funds. Did the police commissioner investigate? No.

The Sofia case should have led the Maltese authorities to look more closely at other projects of the people involved. Of course, they didn’t. I had to take the initiative myself and report the matter to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for it to investigate the case.

Local authorities cannot be relied on and we must, therefore, also consider new ways of fighting corruption through other venues.

Several people got in touch with me on the matter, expressing support that, finally, someone stood up to rampant abuse. We must give hope to people and show in a tangible way that, indeed, Europe is a tool to protect us. Like so many other opportunities the EU offers us, Malta stands to gain if we are on the ball, if we grasp opportunities and use the right tools to come to concrete results.

I am committed to use my 21-year-long experience within European institutions to fight corruption not only on the political level but also at the technical level. We need to use all tools including existing legislation and European bodies to do the necessary checks and balances on the government. This is one of my main priorities, which I want to work on if elected to the European Parliament.

For all these reasons, we must ensure that we choose the best people to represent us in the European Parliament come June 8.

Soon, we will celebrate 20 years of EU membership. So far, our EU experience has been a success story on many fronts. Corruption and bad governance in Malta and the EU’s complacency about it risks ruining our EU experience. I will not let that happen. Join me in this path. Together we can be the change we need for our country.

Peter Agius is a Nationalist Party MEP candidate.

https://timesofmalta.com/article/fighting-corruption-using-new-methods.1090047

When our country participates in the Olympics taking place in Paris this summer, we will be sending the best and most prepared athletes. Europe is also a competition of sorts. All member states are geared to achieve what is best for their people and for their country. We must hence make sure to send our best ‘athletes’ to represent us in the European Parliament. We must strive to choose those among us who are best equipped to bring results for Maltese citizens.

We need to adapt Europe to our needs as an island state and as an archipelago. We are repetitively seeing that several EU laws being adopted are not fit for the reality on the ground in the Maltese islands. There is no one within EU institutions who has in mind of giving Malta and its citizens a hard time. It is up to us to shape EU policies to the needs of Malta. EU laws which affect us negatively are the outcome of lack of effective work to make the necessary changes in EU law at the right time.

One classic example is the Emission Trading Scheme directive which in principle is a noble cause to safeguard the environment but which negatively impacts jobs at the Freeport and Maltese consumers.  The Freeport alone is set to lose €140 million in revenues yearly. The cost of transporting shipping containers between Malta and four Italian ports has risen by up to €90 per container from January. We got to know all of this six months after the directive was adopted. That is not acceptable. We need to anticipate changes before EU legislation is shaped. We need to act earlier and carefully; study how European laws will affect us because once proposals become law it will be too late.

The same applies to EU laws on sustainable aviation fuel which will see fares for air passengers as well as cargo increase. Fighting climate change is in our interest, but it cannot come at a disproportionate cost for islands where air travel is crucial.

My commitments and vision

This is why in the Conference on the Future of Europe I called for the introduction of territorial impact assessments to take into account the realities on islands before the European Commission proposes legislation. I am glad that this proposal has also been included in the manifesto of the EPP adopted during the congress in Bucharest. This is an important commitment and I pledge to ensure its implementation in the next five years.

Furthermore, if elected as MEP I will contribute in terms of capacity building for us as a nation to better understand what Europe is doing and to be able to adapt it to our needs. I will organise national conferences with stakeholders to exchange views and set national priorities. This will help feed into the priorities of the European Commission.

Currently, we have MEPs representing Malta in nine of the 20 committees and several EU legislations are not being adapted by the parliament to our needs.  I will therefore table amendments in all legislative committees of the European Parliament on legislation which leaves an impact on Malta by working closely with members of the largest political group – the EPP. The same applies to EU legislation which is of interest to Gozo – which goes beyond the committee responsible for regional policy.

Above all I want to scrutinise the work of the Maltese government in Brussels. It can’t be that the government says one thing in Malta but votes in another way in Brussels. The government can’t continue to treat people as fools. This is what happened with the EU Urban Wastewater Directive. An EU requirement for pharmaceutical producers to pay for wastewater treatment will lead to higher prices of medicines for end consumers. Minister Miriam Dalli went on record to note that Malta was worried that the requirement made on pharmaceutical producers could impact patients. Yet Malta voted in favour of the directive, despite those concerns and without including any safeguard for price increases on medicines.

We need to change the way we do Maltese politics in Europe and I am now ready to use my 20 years of experience in the EU machinery to make this happen.

On 8 June use your vote to make this a reality.

https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/128289/shaping_the_eu_to_maltese_needs

Come June 8, my name will appear on the ballot sheet for the election of members to the European Parliament from Malta. The journey getting here was long: from the first deliberations with my family, sounding people in the know, getting to know the PN from the inside and hitting the campaign trail visiting and meeting people from all walks of life.

We’re now at the point where voters should have a clear idea where the candidates stand on.

Malta’s interests

My priority, as you’d expect, would be to fight for Malta’s interests. There are two ways to do this. One option is the Labour way, involving little more than pandering to the gallery, making empty statements that make for catchy TV soundbites and viral Facebook posts. What it doesn’t do is to move other politicians to support your cause or Eurocrats to include your point of view into their proposals.

Promoting your country’s interest is a long, hard slog.

It involves reading the signs early, adjusting your sails accordingly, putting forth arguments that are solidly backed with evidence and seeing them through until the finish line. This is why the Maltese government stumbled on many occasions.

On many important files, it failed to be actively present from the beginning and, when belatedly it made its case, it was in a way that wasn’t solid enough to withstand counter-arguments.

Even though I’m not an MEP, I have done my best to be proactive. I have helped hundreds of young people seize the many opportunities available for them at the European level, petitioned the European Commission over grain imports and supported local councils in tapping funding to offer free WiFi. I have proposed measures to support Maltese products with a helping hand to farmers and fishermen. I have campaigned for retention of free-to-air broadcasting.

New ways to fight corruption

Over the past years, I visited over 900 households over the islands in home visits. A drop in the ocean compared to the whole population but nonetheless a good sample. A huge chunk of families I visited feel let down by the EU in the way it turned a blind eye to what was going on in Malta.

People who had looked at the EU to curb domestic excesses and ensure good behaviour from our politicians were shocked to see it was business as usual in Brussels. Joseph Muscat, despite a very dark cloud hanging over his head, would show up to European Council meetings to be welcomed with wide smiles and lots of slapping on the back.

Like anywhere else, European politicians come in all forms. The EU has its fair share of opportunists and unprincipled. What it also has are functioning institutional mechanisms. And, over the last few years, the EU has been putting together its ‘toolbox’ to combat corruption and ensure fairness and the rule of law. From anti-SLAPP legislation to legislation to ensure the independence of public broadcasting, there has been a lot of good work going on.

It is now time to put those tools to work.

The next step is to make use of those tools and ensure that national authorities respect the European laws they voted for. As an MEP, I will make sure that the European Commission sees that the implementation of these laws in the member states is correct and effective. With senior officials like the commissioner of police and the state advocate turning a blind eye to the machinations of the government, there are now other opportunities to ensure that our politics stays clean and authentic.

I will also be fighting the corruption battle at the technical level, using the skills from my 20-year-long experience at the policy table, using the fine print of the EU acquis, from anti-fraud rules to public procurement directives and anti-money-laundering rules.

Special attention to Gozo and young people

Every politician has his favourite topics. I do too.

The first is Gozo. I’m very attached to the place, and it pains me to see that not only is the island left alone to overcome its geographical disadvantages but there are so many EU opportunities which are not being tapped. There are many remote communities in the EU and EU policies exist to ensure that they also benefit from the measures that naturally favour more central communities.

For example, as part of its climate policies, the EU supports clean transport. Imagine if we were to present a serious proposal for a new fleet for Gozo Channel, 100 per cent electric and EU-funded! Stop imagining, it can be done with existing tools and several other member states are already doing it.

For Gozo to succeed, Gozitans must be in the driving seat when it comes to EU-funded projects with a view to creating jobs in Gozo.

As an MEP, I will make sure that Gozo’s voice is heard in the European Parliament committees and that the island’s particular circumstances are taken account of in EU laws and policies.

The EU offers a lot of opportunities to young people. Promoting existing schemes covering youth exchanges, traineeships, studies and work and improving and adapting them will be my aim as an MEP.

Proper implementation

After Malta joined the EU, Alfred Sant went on record saying that, at the helm of the government, his application of EU law would be a case of “tbażwir” – “winging it” doesn’t quite capture the sloppiness implied in the Maltese word. Sant never made it back as prime minister but his Labour successors made the application of EU law a matter of doing nothing really or just enough to keep the European Commission distracted.

For example, the EU law requiring tendering, which the Maltese government ignores and then issues direct orders, and the EU’s Cross Border Healthcare Directive, which says you have the right to be reimbursed healthcare abroad until your government decides that it really doesn’t feel like it should reimburse you. Laws are laws and nobody is above them, certainly not a member state that has voted for them in Brussels and then decides it doesn’t care in Malta.

That, in a nutshell, is where I stand. If you feel that we’re on the same wavelength, get in touch (kellimni@peteragius.eu) or hit my website or Facebook where you find details on upcoming events. And, even better, consider voting for me on June 8.

The EU is an effective means to make improvements to our lives, our communities and our environment. What we need to do is to transform its potential into actual, tangible benefits. With your help, we can do just that.

Peter Agius is a Nationalist Party MEP candidate.

https://timesofmalta.com/article/how-i-help-mep.1089239