No Mr Verheugen

The Malta Independent



Since time immemorial this country has used its geo-strategic position to benefit its economic development.

Sixty years nearly to the day, it was only the hand of God that saved us from surrender to the Axis forces as a supply convoy limped into the grand harbour to save our ancestors from starvation.

During these sixty years our country changed more than it had changed in six thousand years ` mostly for the better, environmentally for the worse.

We gained independence, initially a nominal one, but eventually real and we prospered. We did not keep the pace with benchmark countries like Cyprus and Singapore who were more determined and focussed in their approach, but we are still a million times better than what our fathers were used to. `It is the government that has become a single issue government at the expense of everything else.`

The question is where do we go from here` Which model can best guarantee a rate of sustainable development`

EU Commission for Enlargement Gunther Verheugen has no doubt. Unless we form part of an enlarged EU, common foreign and security policy and all, we will just be a small island on our own between Europe and Africa without any role in international affairs and ill equipped to face the challenges of globalisation.

Pity he fails to explain why certain EU regions, especially those nearest to us, are not doing particularly well in the globalisation race even though they have a long history of EU membership.

This is not to bad-mouth the EU. Whatever model we choose, strong collaboration with the EU in trade, commerce, education, culture and other fields remains a common factor. There is life after both as EU members or as strong trading partners. It mostly depends on us, on our ability to make the hard choices in time rather than continue to burn up resources uselessly. `Labour is not a single issue opposition and Malta will not become irrelevant outside the EU.`

But even elementary logic shows that small economic units can compete successfully with large units through differentiation not emulation. Through the advantage of moving with agility to grasp the opportunities as they arise we can beat on speed the larger economies often unable to move as fast because of their sheer size.

Our ability to differentiate, the agility to move faster than the acquis communitaire would otherwise permit, could lead to better prosperity provided we can put behind us the parochial mentality of divisiveness and approach the future as one nation.

And to prove that he is detached from local realities Mr Verheugen professed his believe that the Labour Party has become a single issue oppositon ` that of obstructing Malta`s accession to the EU. How dare he say so when the Leader of the Opposition recently went as far as proposing a postponement of the EU debate while the country focuses with unity on the more relevant and pressing domestic issues which the government has neglected` It is the government that has become a single issue government at the expense of everything else.

No Mr Verheugen, you are wrong on both counts.` Labour is not a single issue opposition and Malta will not become irrelevant outside the EU. The strategic importance, which sixty years ago caused us near starvation and which made Britain beat all odds to preserve its central Mediterranean flagship, will continue to see to that.

Alfred Mifsud