There are 785 members of Parliament in the European Parliament. You can love or hate the EU and all the perks that come with it, but it is here to stay and so is the election of our MEPs. So far, the present MEPs have concentrated more on the interests of the party than on the interests of the citizens. You can actually identity the times when they took an initiative for the benefit of the citizens mainly being the abolition of the departure tax and recently, the abolition of VAT for second-hand cars from the EU member states. Now we feel that the new MEPs must concentrate more on the citizens. They must teach the citizens how to make a complaint to the EU Ombudsman when they feel that their rights under EU law have been threatened by their government. They must teach the citizen how to approach them to raise a question in the European Parliament and what’s needed to do that.
I am saying this because I feel the rights of the citizens under the EU legal regime have not been protected by this government and it is not fair that for an issue to arise on the EU platform, one must be knowledgeable of EU law or have the money to appoint EU consultants. There are cases in Malta where the government is flouting the EU law and the citizen feels helpless to this effect.
A case in point is the deduction of social assistance and medical assistance for people who go to visit their children abroad, notwithstanding that they live in an EU member state. These people have to go to the humiliation of informing the social security department every time they go see their children of the details of their date of departure from Malta and the return date so that the department deletes the allowance for that period.
I cannot understand how this is allowed to happen when we have always been told that we are one big happy family, that we are all EU citizens. But for the department of social security the EU law allows it to do this as it is a non-contributory payment. It is so unfair for the department to interpret ‘residence bound’ to mean that you have to stay in Malta and that you cannot go abroad, not even to see your children, as this is tantamount to leaving your residence.
I would appreciate if our MEPs actually provide us with information on how citizens can make their complaints with the EU as this assistance is lacking and seems to be only available to the strong and the mighty. I know that the EU representation in Malta provides assistance but its assistance is not extended to the filing of complaints with the EU: they provide legal assistance as to whether such and such an action is in conformity or against EU law and it stops there.
It provides no assistance to EU citizens whose rights are being infringed and it’s not providing information about what’s going on in the European Parliament. It is only during election time that it reminds us of our duty to vote but it does nothing to raise awareness on the procedure to enforce one’s rights in Brussels.
But the people want more: they want to learn how to make a complaint; they want to learn how to approach their MEP and how and in what cases are they entitled to a parliamentary question in the European Parliament.
In Italy the people asked about the number of sessions attended by their euro MEPs but when this question was asked in Parliament, Brussels declined to divulge this information on the pretext of ‘privacy’. They made this request because they know that every MEP gets paid from the EU taxpayer €3,000 for every parliamentary session.
The Radical Party, who supported this initiative through their MEP Marco Cappato, made the question but did not stop there. It commissioned a report so that this exercise is done privately and now thanks to this report the Italian electorate has information about the number or attendances and absenteeism of their MEPs.
In Malta we ought to be provided with this information as well and if the Parliament in Brussels is hiding behind ‘privacy’ in order not to publish the attendance list of the MEPs, it is the responsibility and duty of the political parties to do this. As voters we have the right to know who of the five MEPs took the job seriously or not before we cast our vote in June.
I must confess that Brussels is wrong in stating this information is confidential. Once you are a public figure and you are being paid by the taxpayer’s money, nothing remains confidential anymore. If Brussels his year ruled that the MEPs must make public what they earn from Brussels, it is also the duty of Brussels to make public the attendance sheet of the MEPs.
The people also want to know the agenda of the parliamentary sessions in Brussels. We must not forget that 80% of our legislation comes from Brussels now and it is no longer done in our Parliament. Information about the agenda of our Parliamentary sittings is provided but unfortunately the European Parliament does not provide the citizens with information about its own agenda.
It is true that one can have access to the internet but it is wrong to make a clean sweep and take it for granted that all EU citizens ought to know how to browse the internet. Accessibility has to be to all and it is the duty of the EU Parliament who has an office in Malta to publish the agenda of the European Parliament so that the citizens would know what is going on.
People have the right to know what is taking place now in parliament and what will take place later on this year when the new session of parliament starts on 14 September, as according to the timetable they only have to attend three sessions in July.
The research conducted by the Radical Party for example lists Umberto Bossi of Lega Nord as the most absent MEP with 920 absences; and Luisa Morgantini from Rifondazione as the most present as she was only absent for four sessions.
Money is spent without control at the European Parliament: it is wasted between the three seats of the European Parliament, Brussels, Strasbourg (for one week monthly) and Luxembourg where the offices in the EU Parliament are situated.
How Brussels expects its member states to tighten their spending and at the same does nothing to control its own, is something the EU taxpayer wishes to know as he has had enough of Brussels squandering spree.
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Now we feel that the new MEPs must concentrate more on the citizens. They must teach the citizens how to make a complaint to the EU Ombudsman when they feel that their rights under EU law have been threatened by their government. They must teach the citizen how to approach them to raise a question in the European Parliament and what’s needed to do that.
