According to Malta’s Speaker of Parliament, Honorable Angelo Farrugia (pictured above), artificial intelligence is no longer a future concern but a present reality for democratic institutions. In an interview with SiGMA News, he discussed the creation of Malta’s parliamentary committee on information technology and AI, its relevance to governance, and the safeguards needed as technology reshapes public administration and regulated sectors such as iGaming.
A parliament with a digital agenda
Malta’s Parliament is seeking to place artificial intelligence at the centre of its legislative work, with potential implications for online gaming, one of the sectors that drives the island’s economy.
Farrugia said the creation of a standing committee on information technology and artificial intelligence reflected a wider recognition that AI is already affecting the way institutions operate.
“AI is now the present, not the future,” Farrugia said. “So we have to see how we can engage AI with today’s realities, and today’s realities include Parliament.”
For Malta, whose economy is closely linked to regulated digital industries including iGaming, financial services and technology, the decision to establish a parliamentary committee dedicated to AI is likely to be followed closely by businesses and regulators.
Farrugia said the committee emerged from a parliamentary motion presented in July last year with support across the House. He described Malta as “one of the first parliaments in Europe” to take such a step.
“We were one of the first parliaments in Europe, and definitely one of the few parliaments in the world,” he said.
The Speaker said he had followed international discussions on AI through his work in the Commonwealth, where the technology is now firmly on the agenda for legislatures and public institutions.
From televised sittings to AI oversight
Farrugia, who has served as Speaker since 2013, framed the AI committee as part of a longer programme of technological reform in Malta’s Parliament.
“When I was elected Speaker in 2013, we were still at the Grandmaster’s Palace, in Valletta. With regard to technology, there was a complete absence,” he said.
The move to Malta’s new Parliament building in 2015 allowed the institution to modernise its operations. The first sitting in the new building was televised, and parliamentary broadcasts were later made freely available, he explained.
“When we moved Parliament in 2015, I made sure that we would have some technology in place,” Farrugia said.
He added that Parliament subsequently invested in online access, video archives and on-demand viewing, allowing citizens in Malta and overseas to follow plenary sittings and committee meetings.
Safeguards, data and democratic checks
Despite this enthusiasm for modernising the way Parliament operates, the Speaker repeatedly stressed that AI adoption inside Parliament must be accompanied by clear rules, especially around the accuracy and integrity of information.
“We did refer to the European Union AI Act,” Farrugia said. “That is very important because any use of AI must be guided by clear guidelines.”
He said Malta’s Parliament had held several meetings involving MPs, parliamentary staff, the University of Malta and other bodies to examine how AI could be used responsibly.
“We discussed this jointly, in clear terms and in great detail, to make sure that AI serves our parliamentary democracy well,” he said.
For industries such as iGaming, which already rely heavily on data, automation, fraud detection and customer monitoring systems, the direction of parliamentary debate may prove significant. Malta is a major European gaming jurisdiction, and any future AI framework could influence compliance expectations around transparency, accountability and the handling of personal data.
Farrugia did not set out sector-specific proposals, but he said future legislation may be needed to ensure that AI systems are used safely and accurately.
“We have to have proper guidelines and safeguards to make sure that the data and information being fed by AI is not tainted,” he said.
He also said MPs were becoming more engaged with digital tools, helped by a younger generation of parliamentarians and training sessions involving technology experts and academic institutions.
The Speaker said Malta’s size should not prevent it from taking a leading role. Recalling a Commonwealth meeting in India, he said larger democracies had shown interest in Malta’s work.
“They were quite impressed that a small country like Malta, with just over half a million people, has a specialised parliamentary committee on AI,” Farrugia said.
For Farrugia, the challenge now is not whether Parliament should engage with AI, but how quickly it can build the safeguards to keep pace.
“AI is going to play a very important part,” he said. “What we need are proper guidelines.”
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