ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the substance and nature of Malta's Europeanization experience in the first decade of membership. Malta has been a member state for ten years, the smallest European Union (EU) member state in terms of population, size, economy and voting weight in the Council. The primary impact of membership is through the currency of EU politics, namely EU policy as negotiated and adopted by the EU institutions. The need for horizontal coordination of EU affairs has had a significant impact on Malta's administrative class and, more specifically, those who coordinate EU affairs. As with the Administrative Class, the impact on Malta's regulative authorities was significant in terms of load but less substantial in terms of empowerment. Local councils constitute relatively new phenomena within Maltese political system, having been created and first elected into office in 1993. In analysing Malta's Europeanization experience, several salient factors were highlighted which could have conditioned how the country changed because of EU membership.
