Editorial

As the festive spirit wears out, the country will once again be focusing on one of the most important decisions the people will be called upon to take - whether they want to see the island join the New Europe, as fashioned in Copenhagen, or remain out on the periphery of the Union.

It is not a difficult decision to make really. Labour is making it sound as if it is only because its option is by far inferior to what the Nationalist government is proposing.

In fact, Labour must feel itself caught in a major dilemma, for it surely knows that what it is offering is no match to what the island has before it for the taking.

Policy-wise, Labour's biggest mistake was when it closed the door to membership for the foreseeable future, choosing instead to work for a loose arrangement which they first described as "Switzerland in the Mediterranean".

It was a concept which they themselves found so hard to explain to their supporters in a coherent manner that they had to switch to calling it "partnership".

The impression they are now giving is that they could get the same benefits from the European Union even if they stay out.

This is not the case at all as otherwise all the acceding countries would have done the same. This point has been driven home more than once by leading EU Commission officials but it would seem that the Labour Party knows better!

Malta would definitely not stand to gain better benefits outside the EU than if it were to join.

It simply cannot be; it is not even logical. When Labour opted to close the door to membership, it made a tactical mistake, one that is going to cost it dearly. It greatly compounded the mistake when it declared that the party would not respect the will of the electorate if it votes yes to Europe, arguing that a referendum is a tool in the governing party's hands.

Now that the movement for a yes vote is picking up from one survey to another, Labour have found themselves in a cul-de-sac. For the high probability is that if the number of those intending to vote yes keeps rising, as it is most likely, Labour will be doomed to spend another term in opposition.

Had Labour played their cards well, they could have stood a much better chance of winning an election than they have now. But they did not, and even at this late stage, they keep up fantasising about the benefits of their partnership proposal when they know only too well that they do not even have a concrete offer to make to the electorate in the referendum.

The difference between the two proposals, that being offered by the government and Labour's, is so stark that the same element that threw Labour out of office barely two years after the 1996 election will once again realise that the party has nothing to offer but pie in the sky.

Labour have failed to read the signs of the times. For Labour's pie in the sky, the Nationalists are opening a new era for the island, one that will usher in new opportunities in an enlarged European community.

What really remains to be done now is for the government to take advantage of these last remaining weeks up to the referendum and highlight the benefits accruing to the country from EU accession as against the loose "partnership" arrangement.