Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1024340
25 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 SEPTEMBER 2018 OPINION More worryingly still, the idea that Malta may be stripped of its power of veto has already been floated... by MEPs who loudly ques- tion whether a country as tiny as Malta should even have that kind of power entrusted to it in the first place. And of course, there are those who do not disguise their ambition that a single 'super-state' called 'Europe' will one day arise from the ashes of its individual mem- ber countries. The idea has its propo- nents here in Malta, too. In fact, I sometimes won- der if these people have ever paused to reflect on the actual impact such a development would have on our tiny, defenceless island state. Well, I've given a lot of thought to this eventuality; and from whichever angle you choose to look at it, it spells out the complete annihilation of Malta as a sovereign country. Whether or not Europe goes the full distance to reinvent itself as a 'United States of Europe' – para- doxically, seeing as how Weber cites the USA as precisely the model not to be followed – all the steps and phases of this integra- tionist approach will slowly but surely erode individual member states' ability to take decisions for them- selves, and in their own interest. Even larger and longer-es- tablished countries run the same risk of losing a degree of autonomy and self-rule; but the danger is consider- ably more pronounced for a country that is – when all is said and done – just a little rock in the Mediterranean sea... only marginally larger than Lampedusa or Linosa. Well, just look at Lampe- dusa today. That island is already part of a much larger federal state called 'Italy'. Being remotely gov- erned from Rome, it has no sovereignty or autonomy of its own; and because of that – together with its size, its total lack of political clout, etc – it is now treated as a dumpsite for all Italy's migration issues. That, I fear, is a micro- cosm of what Malta's future may look like fairly soon, within the federalised Eu- ropean Union that so many of its own citizens seem to want. Even as things stand today, several MEPs – Ana Gomes, Sven Giegold et al – can barely disguise their view that we are, in fact, just a little rock with delusions of nationhood, that punches way too far above its puny weight for the rest of Eu- rope's liking. If these people had their way, Malta would very em- phatically not be a sovereign state at all. And they might get their way, too... as the future of our country may well be determined by next year's choice of new Commission president. Joseph Muscat may have his flaws as Prime Minister of Malta; but I can't realistically imagine him – or any other Maltese Commission President – steering the EU in a direc- tion that would utterly annihilate his own country's very existence. Can anyone say the same for Manfred Weber, or any other possible candidate from any other country? No, I didn't think so either. There are those who do not disguise their ambition that a single 'super-state' called 'Europe' will one day arise from the ashes of its individual member states EC president