close
close
orange

‘The EU cannot save a member state from itself’

Vaseline

As the 20th anniversary of Malta’s accession to the EU approached, I reread ‘Malta’s EU Story – How Ten Years of EU Membership Has Changed the Country’, a report I had written for the now defunct Today Public Policy Institute.

It made for bittersweet reading.

The report, written between 2013 and 2014, during the first few months of a new government of Joseph Muscat, spoke of a country that has been transformed over the past decade, largely for the better:

“In (this) decade, the nature of our relationship with the EU has transformed from the main political point of contention in the country to an issue of national consensus. Much more has also changed in these ten years, such as our level of connection with the outside world, our currency, the structure of our economy, the way we treat our environment and our civil society.”

We highlighted the enormous flow of EU funds invested in Malta’s human capital and environment, as well as other positive developments such as the strengthening of our civil society, a dramatic revival of foreign and direct investment, and a new economic robustness that has helped the country navigate repeated economic shocks with surprising resilience.

These positive developments were not just the natural consequence of EU membership. Take, for example, that new-found economic robustness. Between 2008 and 2013, the average annual GDP growth of the 28 Member States was -0.1%; the seven other EU states bordering the Mediterranean shrank even sharper, by an average of 1.46%. Yet in those same years, despite all the economic turbulence, Malta managed to grow by 1.5%, easily outperforming both the EU’s neighbors and the Union as a whole.

On the environment and agriculture, the report highlighted new flows of money and support into these sectors, but noted that these were “at risk”.

“EU membership has done little to alleviate the country’s most pressing environmental problems, which arise from its small size and high population density and insufficient or ineffective de facto public involvement in protecting the natural landscape. Urban sprawl on the islands has taken its toll for decades, and the few remaining natural and rural areas are still declining.”

Overall, however, we believe that Malta should look to the future “with the confidence it has earned after ten well-spent years of EU membership. But it must also keep its eyes wide open to the dangers and challenges that lie ahead, knowing that there are no guarantees of success beyond our own hard work, ingenuity and good governance… The EU cannot be a Member State of its own to rescue”.

I reread these lines with sadness. I remember the optimism of the period before EU accession and that first decade of membership. There were enormous challenges ahead of us, and hard arguments over every little thing. But many difficult decisions were also made and often unpopular, harsh reforms implemented.

There was a sense of progress, of openness, of a country newly connected to the world, learning, growing and finding its way.

Unfortunately, the past decade has crushed that optimism and turned us into tired, jaded cynics.

The country has continued to grow economically – the resilience our economy has gained through EU membership has become almost unreal. It sometimes seems that the enormous investment flows brought about by accession have made the Maltese economy currently impervious to external turbulence.

To all the decent young people reading this, please don’t leave-Patrick Tabone

But in other ways we have lost our way so much. That positivity and pride in the tough reforms that have been implemented, in the fact that you are a constructive member of the EU, has gradually given way to nauseated discomfort and even shame.

First a disgraced EU Commissioner with Maltese nationality.

Subsequently, key government figures are named in the Panama Papers, and – even worse – the government’s flat refusal to prosecute or even remove them. It is true that ordinary people took to the streets and drove them out in disgrace – a rare moment of national pride in the past decade – but they must still be held accountable for their corrupt and criminal actions.

As if this were not enough, there was the deep national trauma surrounding the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, for which the Maltese state was found to “bear responsibility”, not to mention Malta’s temporary placement on the gray list of the FATF, together with countries such as Nigeria and Haiti.

Our economy is now based on third country nationals whom we pay as little as possible, fail to protect in a meaningful way and then return home as quickly as possible.

This new economic model is not the result of EU membership – it is the result of government decisions and drives that have taken us far from where we want to go.

As for our environment, the government has systematically wiped out the modest protections and safeguards so painstakingly built with EU help, allowing unbridled development as a way to keep people happy, without considering the long-term consequences term.

Worryingly, neither of our two main political parties is currently fit for purpose. You have been in government too long, you are tired, in over your head and soiled by the association with Joseph Muscat and his henchmen. The other has lost his way, and his machinery and his soul seem to have fallen by the wayside for the time being as a result of failed leadership.

Overlying every factor, however, is a pervasive sense that something has been lost in the despicable national get-rich-quick struggle – our ‘għaqal’, our decency, our sense that we are good, hospitable people who work hard and honestly so that our children can live. do better than we did.

The result is that we are tired and angry and grieving for what we have lost. Everywhere we look, besides crooks, we see environmental degradation, collapsed standards, and politicians and officials who have forgotten that they are there to serve the public, not themselves.

Our GDP is growing, but it’s for naught if we’re not happy, if most of our children can’t wait to flee our shores.

It is bad faith, bad people and bad decisions that have brought us to this point. Good people, in positions of responsibility and working in good faith, can still get us out of this.

So to all the decent young people reading this, or at least some of you: please don’t leave, or at least come back at some point. Put yourself in your place and start fixing the mess we left you with.

Patrick Tabone was a member of the Core Negotiating Group during Malta’s accession negotiations to the EU.

Related Posts