/library/oar/handle/123456789/19988 2025-11-09T00:58:27Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/137713 Title: Malta [Palgrave handbook on the 2024 European Parliament elections] Authors: Sammut, Ivan Abstract: On the eve of the 2024 European Parliament election, the Labour Party (PL [Partit Laburista], S&D) had just emerged from its third consecutive general election landslide two years earlier. The Nationalist Party (PN [Partit Nazzjonalista], EPP) was led by a newly installed leader following the ousting of its previous weakest leader. He failed to unite the core vote behind him and was unable to lead the party into the 2022 general election. The PL’s victory in the 2024 election initially appeared to be a foregone conclusion even though the party and the government were linked to widespread corruption, including a mention in the Panama Papers, and rule of law issues, including the assassination of the world-famous investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. However, corruption and the rule of law issues are not necessarily considered bread and butter issues by a majority of the electorate, and with good economic growth, the result is not a surprise. However, in 2024, this was not to be the case. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/136395 Title: Translating European Union law : an innovative way of looking at translation theories Authors: Sammut, Ivan Abstract: The paper discusses whether traditional translation theories can be applied to the translation of European Union (EU) law. It will start by explaining EU multilingualism. Then, from the law, the discussion moves to translation techniques and whether they can apply to EU law. Then, the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union is discussed within the context of harmonisation of European Union law. Will the theological approach carry the day, or will the literal approach be the norm? The paper concludes with a discussion on using a lingua franca as a working language and the effect of Euro-English. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/135845 Title: Malta report in the area of EU emergency law Authors: Sammut, Ivan Abstract: EU emergency law refers to the legal framework and measures adopted by the EU institutions and Member States to deal with situations of crisis or urgency that threaten the stability and functioning of the EU. It can involve different types of legal acts supported by institutional practice and judicial interpretation tion, as well as non-legislative acts, such as guidelines or communications. Depending on the nature and scope of the crisis, EU emergency law can rely on different legal bases and procedures. Maltese law deals with emergency legislation through Chapter 178 of the Laws of Malta. However, a state of emergency is also described under the Maltese Constitution, which refers to it as a “period of public emergency” under Article 47(2). The Constitution provides three instances where a period of emergency may be declared. First, when Malta is involved in a war or second, the President has the discretion to declare a state of emergency. Third, Parliament may declare a state of emergency, having acquired a two-thirds majority of the Members of Parliament’s votes establish that subversion is threatening democracy. 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z /library/oar/handle/123456789/135816 Title: Effective remedies in public procurement : the case for enhanced harmonisation Abstract: Public procurement is becoming an increasingly important tool of economic growth, mainly due to the increased role of the public procurement’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) of world economies. Public procurement law and policy embrace the principles and procedures that guide contracting authorities and entities that purchase works, goods or services on the market. Public procurement law is intended to ensure that public funds are spent efficiently, that quality is ensured, while obtaining the best price possible. Fair, non-discriminatory, competitive, transparent and value for money tendering processes contribute to a country’s economic development and sound financial management. In return, contracting authorities and economic operators reap economic benefits as well, besides contributing to boost international trade in goods, services and the purchase of works, thus increasing economic growth. Directive 89/665/EEC1 and Directive 92/13/EEC2, as further amended by Directive 2007/66/EC3 (“Remedies Directives”) are the available EU legal instruments to ensure that effective remedies are available in the Member States in instances where an aggrieved bidder who has participated in a public procurement process seeks redress. The Remedies Directives, being minimum Directives, leave a lot of discretion available to the Member States, which coupled with the principle of judicial autonomy, leads to differences in providing effective remedies to injured bidders across the Member States. The Remedies Directives aim to coordinate the judicial remedies in the Member States as much as possible with the ultimate aim being to reach uniform application, legal certainty and effective remedies in the Member States. Besides providing effective remedies, the domestic laws of the Member States need to ensure that necessary checks and balances are adopted and maintained, such that decisions taken by the contracting entities are reviewed expeditiously to avoid further risks of possible award decisions infringing public procurement legislation. At the moment, public procurement remedies and review bodies are essentially governed by the various national laws of the Member States of the EU, but EU law requires the Member States to offer at least certain remedies, whilst granting national systems discretion in determining and enforcing such remedies. Therefore, following an examination of the Remedies Directives, this thesis seeks to answer the question whether there is scope for further harmonisation of the award of damages by the Member States’ national courts and whether there is scope for further streamlining the review bodies in the Member States which award these remedies. Given that this necessity has been affirmed, namely that there is scope for further harmonisation of the heads of damages and the review bodies, changes are being proposed to the aspects of award of damages and review bodies in the Remedies Directives, including the consolidation of the three Remedies Directives into one Directive. These proposed changes are the result of a comparative study of remedies in public procurement law in four Member States namely Malta, Italy, the Netherlands and France, and also by the examination of CJEU jurisprudence. This thesis argues that equal judicial protection is imperative in the Single European Market, so that all aggrieved bidders are treated equally, no matter in which jurisdiction they wish to challenge decisions they regard as unlawful. In order to achieve effectiveness, equivalence and uniformity in the remedies provided, it is also being suggested that it would be preferable to ensure protection at EU level by means of a regulation rather than by means of the current Remedies Directives which leave too much discretion open to the Member States, to the disadvantage of claimants. 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z