Malta

Republic of Malta

The Union's smallest state, Malta speaks a Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet — a distillation of a thousand years of Mediterranean encounters.

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Heritage

The Acts of the Apostles recount Paul's shipwreck on the island around AD 60: Malta claims one of Europe's oldest Christian communities. The temples of Ġgantija, older than the pyramids, are among the world's oldest stone monuments; Valletta is a fortress city conceived in the sixteenth century as a total work of art.

History

Inhabited since the Neolithic, Malta was Phoenician, Carthaginian then Roman. The shipwreck of Saint Paul planted Christianity there very early. After Arab rule, which bequeathed the language, the island passed to the Normans of Sicily.

In 1530 Charles V entrusted it to the Order of Saint John. The Great Siege of 1565, in which a few thousand knights repelled the Ottoman army, made Malta a European symbol; Valletta was built in its wake.

British from 1800 to 1964, the island was the most bombed naval base of the Second World War. Independent in 1964, a republic in 1974, Malta joined the Union in 2004 and the euro in 2008. It is today the southern frontier of the Schengen area.

Milestones

3600 BC Antiquity

Megalithic temples

Ġgantija and Ħaġar Qim are built a millennium before the Egyptian pyramids.

60 Christianisation

Shipwreck of Saint Paul

The Acts of the Apostles recount the Maltese welcome: Christianity takes root at once.

870 Middle Ages

Arab period

Two centuries of Aghlabid rule give Maltese its Semitic base.

1565 Renaissance and Reformations

The Great Siege

The Order of Saint John repels the Ottoman army; all Europe follows the siege.

1942 Contemporary period

George Cross

King George VI decorates the entire island for its endurance under bombardment.

1964 Contemporary period

Independence of Malta

Malta leaves the British Empire and becomes a republic ten years later.

2004 European construction

Accession of Malta to the Union

The smallest member state joins the EU and adopts the euro four years later.

2004 European construction took part

The big bang enlargement

Ten states, eight of them formerly communist, join the Union: the continent’s division ends.

Political landscape

Results of the June 2024 European election and their translation into European Parliament groups.

PL — Partit Laburista 3
PN — Partit Nazzjonalista 3

Distribution of European seats

Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament 3
Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats) 3

Related news

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National

Murder of a journalist in Malta: anger after the acquittal of a tycoon accused of being the sponsor

Hundreds of people marched in the Maltese capital, Valletta, on Wednesday 2 September to denounce the acquittal of a businessman accused of ordering…

National

In Malta, the acquittal of the oligarch Yorgen Fenech leaves unpunished the sponsors of the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia

The journalist was investigating corruption cases involving powerful Maltese businessmen and politicians, particularly in the context of the…

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The state in numbers

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Public debt, % of GDP 45.9 % 0.5 % GDP per head (EU = 100) 110.2 1.0 Government spending, % of GDP 37.3 % 1.5 % Total tax burden, % of GDP 29.3 % 2.6 % Prisoners per 100,000 people 123.7 0.3