Personalities for 2002

The Malta Independent on Sunday



For better of for worse some personalities stood out during the year drawing to a close to merit being considered for personality of the year.

On the international level the personality that stood out is undoubtedly the French President Jacques Chirac. Not only he swept aside Lionel Jospin in the contest for French Presidency, but he even forced his main socialist rivals to support him in the run-off for presidency against far-right candidate Le Pen. In the process the French socialists destroyed their own credibility for the parliamentary elections that followed hot on heels of the presidential contest. Chirac now controls both the presidency and parliament and is close to be considered as the French Emperor as anybody has been since Napoleon so anointed himself in 1805.

But for Chirac it did not stop on the domestic front. At EU level Chirac also dominated all major issues. To the great displeasure of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chirac re-ignited the Franco-German engine that drives the EU leaving the rest as passive un-influential on-lookers.` Even before the EU heads of states could sit round the negotiating table at the Brussels Summit. Chirac had forced Schroeder into a deal that carries forward the EU farm folly, to the benefit of the powerful French farmers lobby, into the next EU budget for 2007-2013.

`Chirac denied availability of sufficient EU funds to finance the enlargement process forcing new candidates to accept terms which put in doubt whether domestic opinion in candidate countries will support accession in the up-coming referenda.` In the process Chirac denied availability of sufficient EU funds to finance the enlargement process forcing new candidates to accept terms which put in doubt whether domestic opinion in candidate countries will support accession in the up-coming referenda. In countries like Poland, Estonia and Latvia, not to mention Malta, public opinion is already questioning whether the risk of re-absorption by an economically re-shaped Russia is worth the sacrifice of EU accession on miserly humiliating terms.

As EU budget commissioner Schleyer has said, the cost of enlargement for existing members has been very much contained even within budget figures that when set in 1999 where intended for expansion by five or six new candidates.` Yet Chirac has sealed the extravagance of the EU farm policy well into the next EU budget cycle whilst candidate countries have not been given any assurance of any funding beyond 2006.` Some are more equal than the rest!

The international personality that ought to consider 2002 as a personal disaster is UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.` Humiliated by Chirac who edged him out of the tandem with German Chancellor Schroeder, Blair has been made to appear as the US lap-dog rather than the strategic link to co-ordinate the policies of the US and the EU.` Whilst Chirac has brought Schroeder to make huge concessions as Schroeder was suffering under the fatigue of a bruising re-election campaign, re-buff from the US for German non-participation in the pressure of Iraq, and economic woes on the home front risking a recession or outright deflation in Germany, Blair lost the strategic support which he had taken for granted from left wing colleague Schroeder.

On the domestic front Blair is seeing his re-election shine wearing off as the shield of protection of his PR machine is getting predictable and ineffective.` Blair is also under pressure from the man next door at No. 11 Downing Street - Chancellor Gordon Brown. Brown is winning more support for his cool approach to Blair's determination to take sterling into the Euro as interest rates and economic tempo of the UK and Euro areas continue to diverge rather than converge for an eventual docking in. ` This country needs to re-acquire its sanity before being forced to decide on the EU issue in an irreversible manner`

On the local front it was another year of transition leading to nowhere.` We continue to be all losers as domestic problems continue to be disregarded in the pursuit of EU membership at all costs as the only long-term solution to save us from our own indiscipline and inability to run our own affairs in a sustainable efficient manner.` So whilst the government continues to fatten itself by sucking in more resources from the productive sector of the economy, it had to resort to unorthodox financial maneuvers to present a superficially improving fiscal position when the underlying reality is magnificently otherwise.

We are all losers as we are driving the country to take the monumental decision for EU membership in the wrong frame of mind. Those in favour are mostly so because they believe that we have lost the ability to run our own affairs and therefore have no real alternative to membership, having to accept whatever we have been offered. Those against mostly fear that we cannot stand up to competition within the EU.

This country needs to re-acquire its sanity before being forced to decide on the EU issue in an irreversible manner. This sanity can only be regained through a general election which the losers of 2002 will continue to avoid forcing on us a decision we are ill-prepared for.

We deserve much better for 2003. Much more and much better is what I augur my readers for the new year.