The MEP candidate for pan-European party Libertas, Mary Gauci, said her party was not against the European Union but wanted to see a “better operational European Commission”.
Criticising the Lisbon Treaty, Gauci said Brussels had taken away people’s rights by pushing for the Treaty and making “a few unelected European Commissioners decide our future without even discussing with the European Parliament and the people who elected them.”
Gauci said the Lisbon Treaty puts at risk “our automatic right to a referendum on future changes to existing treaties.”
She said the Treaty have the EU too much power, reducing Malta’s ability to stop decisions not in its interests; it gives 105 additional powers to the EU on issues such as international relations, security, trade and economic policy; and in more than 60 of these areas Malta will lose its right to stop laws against national interest.
She added that the Treaty will create an EU foreign minister to speak on Malta’s behalf, eroding neutrality by drawing the island into a common defence and obliging it to increase military spending.
She said the Treaty will cut Malta’s voting strength on the Council of Ministers by more than half, ending its automatic right to a Commissioner.
She also said it will “seriously undermine workers’ rights and public services, mandates the EU to promote nuclear energy, and undermines the EU’s commitment to tackling global poverty and inequality.”
Gauci said that while it gives more power to the European Parliament, it does not allow it to put forward its own laws.
Gauci said the European Parliament elections were not about who will govern Malta, “but an election to elect our representatives in the European Parliament – the more representative Malta would be, the better off would be our citizens, because an elected MEP with Libertas would open a new door through another political group in Brussels.
“The Maltese electorate should understand that it stands having better representation with MEPs in different political groupings rather than having MEP in just two political groups,” Gauci said.
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