https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/13769 2026-10-03T18:30:16Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148520 Title: Long-term sustainability of Gozo's agroecosystem : the strategic plan to support SDG 15 Abstract: Gozo’s agroecosystem has seen a decline in recent years. European Union and Maltese policy frameworks are therefore assessed to examine their effectiveness in advancing Sustainable Development Goal 15 (Life on Land). Considering the geographic and socio-economic constraints that Gozo has, this study will better understand the challenges that micro-islands’ agroecosystems face. These challenges include severe land fragmentation, water scarcity, climate-induced pressures, insecure tenure arrangements, demographic decline among farmers, and limited market access. A convergent mixed-methods case study approach was used for this research integrating policy analysis with semi-structured interviews. To examine the relationship between the EU and Malta, two Maltese Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were interviewed to provide an EU-level policy perspective from Maltese elected representatives. As these challenges are experienced directly by farmers, fifteen Gozitan farmers were interviewed to provide insight into their everyday realities. This multi-level design provided a link between the implemented policies and the everyday realities, revealing coherence as well as policy-practice gaps. The findings show that the EU-level frameworks, particularly the Common Agricultural Policy, the Nature Restoration Law, and the Farm to Fork Strategy, are essential biodiversity and climate instruments that ensure regulatory and financial support is provided. At the national level, the Budget proposals from 2024 – 2026 were assessed with proposals such as land registration reforms, irrigation schemes, and targeted funding, alongside Malta’s CAP. However, after analysing all the national measures, implementation remains uneven and more effective actions are still required. Safeguarding Gozo’s agroecosystem requires strengthened monitoring, improved enforcement and a competitive market for Gozitan farmers. This can all be done with deeper collaboration with Gozitan farmers to adopt measures that target their needs. Unfortunately, Gozo risks further ecological decline, undermining long-term sustainability objectives. Description: M.A.(Melit.) 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148460 Title: Malta and the United States : a common interest in Mediterranean security Authors: Harwood, Mark Abstract: A relationship between the world’s only remaining superpower and one of Europe’s smallest countries would seem unlikely, but Malta-U.S. relations stretch back over two hundred years to a time when Malta was governed by the Knights of Malta (the Knights Hospitaller). In 1783, Benjamin Franklin requested that American ships be granted access to Maltese ports, with the first U.S. Consul to the Knights of Malta being appointed in 1796. By 1800, Malta had come under British control and bilateral relations with the U.S. ended. However, increased American interest in European security during the Second World War saw a grow-ing appreciation of Malta’s strategic importance in the Mediterranean and it was in Malta that George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev declared the end of the Cold War in 1989. However, Malta’s strategic position at the centre of the Mediter-ranean, its neutrality and view of NATO as a means of facilitating EU membership (rather than as an opportunity for collective defence) have meant that the U.S. rep-resents a different type of partner for Malta compared with many countries’ views of the U.S. from continental Europe. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148459 Title: The continuing significance of the council of the EU presidency for small states : agenda setting or painting-by-numbers Authors: Harwood, Mark Abstract: While not uncontested, it is an oft-quoted assumption that the Presidency of the Council of the EU gives member states a unique opportunity to influence the EU agenda and to parachute national priorities onto the Brussels’ stage, an assumption which is even more pronounced in the small state literature. This article seeks to test this assumption by undertaking a content analysis of the presidency of two of the Union’s smallest states, namely Cyprus and Malta. Taking these presidencies from 2012 (Cyprus) and 2017 (Malta), we undertake a content analysis which determines which of the items listed in the priorities and programme of each presidency overlap with items listed in Commission, European Council and Parliament documents which predated these presidencies. From this content analysis, we discover that the overriding feature is that the vast bulk of items can be traced to earlier, EU documents and that only a small number of issues appear to be truly unique to either presidency. Based on those unique items, we then undertake a qualitative discussion to assess whether the Presidency still remains, post-Lisbon Treaty, a unique opportunity for placing items on the EU’s agenda which are niche issues, of political or economic importance to the country. 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/148458 Title: Malta’s uncertain road to EU membership and its impact on pre-accession assistance funding Authors: Harwood, Mark; Cordina, Elaine Abstract: Malta, a small group of islands in the central Mediterranean, was a British colony from 1800 until 1964. France’s initial veto of the United Kingdom’s application to join the European Community (EC) meant that Malta’s rela-tions with the EC were not prioritized until the late 1960s, as part of its drive to diversify its economy.1 The country established its first links with the Community with the signing of an Association Agreement (AA) in 1970.2 The agreement envisaged a two-stage process, covering ten years, which would see Malta move towards a customs union with the EC but bilateral relations became troubled and Malta did not go beyond the first stage of the agree-ment. At the core of this breakdown in relations was Malta’s highly polarized, two-party system. 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z