Die Another Day

The Malta Independent



So it`s Lm26 million for each of the next three years. Then everything will have to be renegotiated again when we will have much less negotiating power than we have now; when we will not be able to leverage the risk of the package being refused by the electorate in the referendum.

Now we are expected to forget the pledge of a cool Lm100 million flowing effortlessly each year from the EU.` We should overlook the pledge for Lm80 million and the absolute assurance given by the Prime Minister that we will get Lm50 million each year as of right, without even having to ask for it.

`Now we are expected to forget the pledge of a cool Lm100 million flowing effortlessly each year from the EU.` Now we know it is Lm26 million and we have to work damn hard to get them, to go through the conditionality and bureaucracy in time to make the drawdown before the budgets expires.

Perhaps people do not realise that even if we manage to make full use of these Lm26 million in the end we will have very little to show for it. The compliance cost of running our EU membership will run into huge millions as yet uncalculated. The cost of direct subsidies we have to pay to our farmers to avoid their destruction at the hands of their EU counterparts who would be given the freedom to compete without tariff barriers, the cost of increased prices for `basic food commodities we have to buy at internal EU prices, and the huge one-off investments we have to make to come in line with the acquis (fuel storage, sewage treatment, environmental alignment of power stations and waste management) mean that the national budget can expect little comfort from the struck deal.` The tax pressure on the economy can expect no ease from the influx of these funds which were supposedly to rain from the EU, initially upon de-freezing the application and now supposedly upon membership.

Now the chips have fallen.` And in no uncertain manner I re-confirm what I have been saying all along. Money and funding will never be good reasons for joining the EU in membership.` The jubilation shown by our leaders for getting from the EU for three years only the amount we will be paying in direct subsidies to our farmers over 10 years shows how little they understand the consequences of this monumental decision which is being approached by way of doctrinal faith instead of hard logic. `No other candidate country will go through the same experience as their government`s mandate has been refreshed or will be refreshed before the referendum (Estonia).`

But at least we can sigh some relief. It is time for the package to be explained in its immediate impact as well as in its likely long-term consequences and then it`s not too soon to let the people decide once and for all.

Such a decision should come from an election followed by a referendum, that is if the PN wins.` The Prime Minister seems minded to invert the sequence no matter how illogical it is, considering that even if the referendum goes the way he wishes it, an election will come before the accession date.` No other candidate country will go through the same experience as their government`s mandate has been refreshed or will be refreshed before the referendum (Estonia).

If the government feels that it has made such a good job of its EU negotiations it is all the more reason to seek an electoral confirmation to renew its mandate to have the necessary constitutional tenure to bring its work to fruition. Clearly the government itself does not rate the EU-deal and its own chances of re-election very high. Probably the government, like James Bond`s latest, prefers to die another day. A referendum defeat would leave the opportunity to go back for more and try again in Irish style.