| Island in the Sun |
10 March 2003
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Malta Votes for EU Membership
While all eyes were on the UN Security Council last week, the small island nation of Malta voted to join the European Union. A non-binding referendum, which still garnered 91% turn-out, passed about 53.6% for joining. The general election in a few weeks will be more of a test for the "Yes" camp, but the real question is why Malta would want to join the EU at all.
On the face of it, that is a silly question. The EU is prosperity, democracy, nations are standing in line to get in. Yet in Malta's case, joining up may mean a loss of sovereignty that it may regret.
As a small nation, Malta doesn't matter much in international politics, and as the Luxembourgeois, Dutch and Belgians have learned, joining a big grouping gives a small nation more influence. Yet unlike these nations, Malta did not become independent until 1964. Middle-aged people in Malta can remember being under the British crown, and unlike the ex-Warsaw pact nations so desirous of joining up, the Maltese did not view Western Europe as liberators but subjugators.
To hand over much of its relatively new independence to Eurocrats in Brussels may just be too much for Malta. On the other hand, this time they will be joining voluntarily rather than by force. And perhaps that will make all the difference.