Malta : no bridge is “a bridge too far”

Abstract

Separated from other countries by the sea, many of them too small to be self-reliant, islands need to build connections to overcome their isolation. Physical bridges are rare, but other types of connections abound. Malta’s relations with the EU represent a bridge building effort with the peoples of the European Continent which also secure supplies, open markets, supply energy through the interlinked European grids, and strengthen security by belonging to a union of democratic states which provides it with the shelter it needs. Bridges link islands to the rest of the world in both positive and negative ways: generally they serve a good purpose, the common good, but they also carry negative influences and goods which often threaten the equilibrium of a settled, stable, but not inert island community.