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Brussels is very far away. It took me nearly 8 hours to get back here last Thursday. As I sat twiddling my thumbs waiting for the connecting flight in Frankfurt it occurred to me that my personal troubles were minor compared to the task of making the connection between the lives of Maltese citizens and the their lives as European citizens.
It is no different elsewhere. Right across the continent 445 million people go about their daily lives preoccupied about their earnings, the taxes they pay, maintaining their standard of living, keeping their jobs, worrying about their pensions. Brussels is not the first thing on their minds.
When it does pop up it is because of some other inconvenience ascribed to the bureaucrats in Brussels. Very often Brussels gets blamed for things that have very little to do with the place or its people. In every EU country governments have developed a tick for blaming Brussels. I have a standing bet that before the next elections it will be a Nationalist government in Malta that will be openly blaming Brussels for something or other to escape a rap it deserves. With its talent for Bundyism, our present government will have no difficulty discounting its own merits in achieving EU membership to shed the blame for a cause of public irritation.
It was a meeting of Green Party leaders in Brussels that had me going upstairs and downstairs at Frankfurt airport. We met to discuss progress on the project we started in February when we signed the documents forming the European Green Party in Rome last February.
Since then we have contested the European Parliament elections together adopting a common programme and sharing a common livery for our campaign material. It was a start but it still feels very thin. Perhaps the best thing to tell is the shared dissatisfaction with just that. Green leaders are impatient in wanting to communicate the vast wealth created by unity in diversity.
A proposal for common action was proposed and shot down in flames by the undersigned aided and abetted by Green leaders from far and wide. It was not because we do not appreciate the benefits of common activities nor because we fail to see that we have a great potential for giving life to European integration. We wanted something better than what was proposed.
We were all going to go back to our countries, to our diverse political realities and we wanted something to tell. Not a grand idea, not something far exalted that would leave people cold but something that non-politicians can relate to.
It was a truly useful exercise. Only days before I had been buttonholing people in Ghasri with the Maltese Greens’ Regional Committee for Gozo. Other Green leaders do just the same in Hungary, Italy or Scotland. Ghasri is not the only village in Europe with 400 souls to keep it alive. This is what we had brought to the hallowed halls of the European parliament building.
In my case the connection is immediate: Alternattiva Demokratika, proportionately the fifth largest Green Party in Europe is still a DIY affair. There is no elaborate hierarchy, we are all involved in grassroots politics. We do not have the administrative structures of smaller parties from larger countries. It is hands on and immediate in Malta. This may be why I could speak with authority for a very significant majority of my colleagues from across the continent. Malta is a microcosm, a superb laboratory but not for zany experiments. If we are to be the interface between individual EU citizens and the heart of the matter, we cannot afford to go home with a pan-European PR move. It has to be something substantial.
My outspoken and somewhat colourful criticism seemed to strike a chord. There were concrete proposals from Rheihard Butikofer party leader of the German Greens on common action to be taken. Philippe Lamberts of the Belgian Greens was great about the kind of structure we need to adopt. Panu Laturi of Finland built on what he achieved for us all in the EP campaign. The Hungarians added to what the Scottish, the English and the Irish had to say. Before we knew it we were more united than we had ever been precisely because we had rejected a proposal we considered to be lacking in authenticity.
It was a truly Green reaction. The energies we had harnessed in Rome last February would be employed in pan-European grassroots action for real. Every Green in Europe has a part to play. Right through the discussion I ached for the ability to make people see through my eyes and hear through my ears. There is no Europe except for the grassroots Europe each of us knows in daily life. There is no Europe far away, it is here, wherever we are.
The trick is to give it voice in Brussels. The Greens made an excellent job of it on Thursday in preparation for their Dublin Council at the end of the month. For a few hours on Thursday I was able to gain the support of all European Greens, melding them together and redirecting their energies to authentic common action.
It was no accident. With 9.3 per cent of the vote in our own country, an electoral gain of 1,300 per cent, Maltese Greens have earned the respect of all other Greens. Having become a familiar face at Green meetings since 1990, I have the cheek to speak my mind to anyone there. I have also imbibed the spirit of the place, of this wonderful family representing 10 million people. I am able to express it and touch the core that all Greens share.
In doing this I am keenly aware that I am deeply indebted to the 23,000 Maltese Europeans who supported us in the EP elections. I am deeply indebted to the friends and colleagues from sister Green Parties who have shared their thoughts with me over the years and whose work I admire every passing day thanks to e-mail communication. I am also deeply indebted to the many thousands of Maltese I have met directly and who have made me aware of their needs and their aspirations. There were Ghasri faces before my eyes as I spoke on Thursday in the heart of Brussels.
I trust that Maltese MEPs and my colleagues from other Maltese political parties are doing just the same within their own European political families. I do not doubt that they are doing their best. Chances are that I have an unfair advantage over them: small is beautiful. My task is to give Maltese citizens ownership of their European Union. It is also that of Maltese MEPs and other party leaders. The European Greens will be giving me a hand. It would be great if the PPE and the PSE help their Maltese colleagues also. The only way is to make the EU positively relevant to people’s lives, The European Green Party is determined to make it an inescapable reality.
harry.vassallo@alternattiva.org.mt
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