Search on Ifri.org

About Ifri

Frequent searches

Suggestions

Malta: No Bridge is "A Bridge Too Far"

External Publications
|
Date de publication
|
Références
Building Bridges Paper Series
Image de couverture de la publication
couv_malta.png
Accroche

Malta as an isolated country saw relations with the EU as a bridge building effort with the peoples of the European Continent, which would also secure supplies, open markets, help obtain energy and strengthen security.

Corps analyses

EU projects that strengthen existing ties or create new ones and which bring visible change to people’s lives tend to have a greater effect on the way the Maltese perceive the European project than discussions about abstract treaty reforms and the shape of a future Europe.

Despite having been mostly spared by the economic crisis, the Maltese are worried about the possibility of a spill-over effect. Hence, they expect the EU to do more to restart the economic motor, such as the better use of EU budgetary resources and allowing governments more flexibility in pursuing reforms.

 

This publication is part of the "Building Bridges Paper Series". For more information about this project, click here. 

 
Decoration

Available in:

Regions and themes

Thématiques analyses
Régions

Share

Download the full analysis

This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.

Malta: No Bridge is "A Bridge Too Far"

Decoration
Author(s)
Image principale
Asia Map
Center for Asian Studies
Accroche centre

Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.

The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands. 

The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.

The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The work of Center’s researchers, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.

Image principale

Pakistan and the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Transformation in Pakistan’s Approach After the War in Gaza

Date de publication
16 October 2026
Accroche

Pakistan has long combined vocal support for the Palestinian cause with covert engagement with Israel. Since the war in Gaza, this balance has become untenable: public opinion is united against Israel, joining Trump’s Board of Peace has drawn rare cross-party criticism, and new regional alignments put normalization out of reach.

Umer KARIM
Image principale

The Oceania Factor in France’s Evolving Indo-Pacific Strategy

Date de publication
18 September 2026
Accroche

This paper examines the two-way relationship between France’s Indo-Pacific strategy and developments in Oceania. Oceania was not a priority in the initial years of France’s Indo-Pacific strategy, as the region was largely treated as secondary to major strategic hotspots and key partnerships, while overseas territories were primarily handled as domestic issues and recipients of a top-down strategy. 

France’s View: From Diplomacy to Public-Private Action

Date de publication
25 September 2026
Accroche

France has emerged as the EU’s IMEC forerunner, combining port infrastructure, diplomatic alliances and public-private cooperation. With Marseille Fos at its core, the country brings a strategic hub for logistics, energy and digital connectivity to the corridor.

Image principale

Trump II, the Crisis of the Rules-Based Order and Europe’s Indo-Pacific Strategy

Date de publication
10 September 2026
Accroche

This article examines the implications of Trump II for Europe’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific. The piece contends that Trump II is accelerating the erosion of the rules-based order and undermining the relevance of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) concept, while forcing Europe to refocus on its own continental security amid US retrenchment. Paradoxically, these very constraints create conditions for a more autonomous, pragmatic, and explicitly interest-driven European engagement in the Indo-Pacific, rather than outright withdrawal.

Related Subjects

How can this study be cited?

Image de couverture de la publication
couv_malta.png
Roderick PACE, « Malta: No Bridge is "A Bridge Too Far" », External Publications, Ifri, 1 March 2016.
Copy
Image de couverture de la publication
couv_malta.png

Malta: No Bridge is "A Bridge Too Far"