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That is how last year I weighed the pros and cons when interviewed in ‘Countdown’ for this newspaper. I believed then that, economics-wise, we were not yet sufficiently prepared for assuming the obligations of membership or exploiting its opportunities. Nevertheless, politically we certainly were. And for this alone I voted ‘yes’, in the hope that the new status would compel us to do what the economy badly needed - something the government proceeded to implement hesitatingly, half-heartedly and with titubancy for fear that the opposition might gain sufficient popular support to upset the EU accession applecart. A probability, forsooth.
A year has already rolled by and nothing much has changed. Except leaderships. Distraction, perhaps even euphoria, took hold of the citizenry, reaching its zenith yesterday. Or possibly on 12 June when we elect our five europarliamentarians.
Not the social partners, though. They have been quite busy discussing economic issues inside the MCESD. In particular, the UHM has gone so far as to draft a social pact with sensible proposals, albeit feeble in the face of the endeavours needed to solve the job-creation and fiscal equilibrium challenges through the creation of new export-oriented job opportunities - the only organic ingredient for economic growth. More on this in another article after learning the government’s reactions to the draft pact.
This is the type of initiative every social partner should be proud of and indeed encouraged to take. Thankfully, allegations of partisanship levelled against some of these sectors have been sparse lately. I admired the opposition’s attitude towards practically all constituted bodies , save for the GWU, which solidly stood shoulder to shoulder with the government on the EU membership issue during the referendum campaign last year. Economics, not politics, was behind their overt support, whether one agreed with them or not.
But then, again, how can one really divorce economics from politics? So interdependent. At this juncture of my life, sometimes I wish I had embraced another profession which would have allowed me to fully enjoy Friday’s light monument display at Fort St. Angelo, the fireworks, the music and the fishing-boats display in the centre of the Grand Harbour. Even if I wasn’t permitted to view it from the beautifully refurbished Upper Barrakka.
I simply could not for a moment totally empty my stomach of the butterflies that increasingly crept in each time I read some report or other on a sector of the economy - on the macro-level : non-growth, inflation fears, increased unemployment, fiscal imbalance ; on the micro-level : tourism, Air Malta, Gozo Channel, Drydocks, the furniture industry, perhaps also the food/drinks processors, with the construction industry gallantly coming to their rescue with schemes to transform their industrial buildings into dwelling units on the back of attractive real estate price increases experienced and anticipated.
Thank heavens for the banks, too. They provide the only relief to the otherwise gloom which, sadly, they don’t do much to alleviate when in fact they should, considering their immense sway on the economy’s performance in general due to the duopolistic power they enjoy. Incidentally, last month, during an interesting meeting I had with a top official of one of South Africa’s foremost banks, the news reached us that HSBC had decided against opening retail branches there after a lengthy study. The reason? ‘ There already is enough competition’. So that’s how they came to decide about Malta, I mused. The South African money market had been anxiously awaiting HSBC’s decision for weeks on end, particularly in the light of an unduly steep revaluation of the rand which everyone hoped would reverse a little in order to re-ignite the country’s export efforts.
Yesterday, on this landmark historic occasion of Malta’s formal entry in the E.U. and as the various spectacular celebrations were under way, my mind went back thirty years when Britain and Ireland, with others, experienced the same event. I had reason to be in London then and able to participate in two of the many ‘Fanfare for Europe’ events : a concert at the Royal Festival Hall organised by the London Irish community and attended by hordes of revellers from Ireland for the occasion, and a reception given at LSE’s graduate school for its ex-alumni.
The feeling among the British was undoubtedly the overall economic benefits at the expense of an acceptable loss of sovereignty. With the Irish, however, both aspects read positive. Bully for Ireland. Europe was still then a mere ‘common market’ but clearly with political aspirations. The rapid development towards an EU as we know it today was to irritate immensely Prime Minister Thatcher and half her Tory party, rendering Britain the EU’s ‘naughty boy’, an image Tony Blair has been trying so hard to eradicate to the extent of even putting his own position on the line in acceding to a referendum on the proposed constitution.
Here in Malta the obverse is the case. With reservations on neutrality somehow neutralised, nobody really holds any political qualms any longer in joining the other 24 countries in a united Europe with European values - political and social for sure and, with minor reservations, also economic.
Our state of unpreparedness will inevitably translate into a few years of more pain than gain: in fact, the former is a requisite for the latter. Readjustment or restructuring, as oft drummed into our ears. So sharply divided on the membership issue as we had been prior to the last general election, the transformation process has had to be much too slow, almost imperceptible. With the result that now, firmly inside the EU, the reform pace has to be quickened as dictated by our commitments to Brussels and, hopefully, irrespective of election considerations, at least up to 1997.
Twenty-four law amendments in one bill debated in parliament on the eve of EU entry is already a sign that the government is in the wood, rather than coming out of it as we should, after several years of preparation accorded specifically to us.
Perhaps not quite a wood, but a copse.
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