Finding our feet

Last Wednesday's leader in The Times hit the nail on the head when it compared Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici's many hats to Imelda Marcos's shoe collection. While she had thousands of perfect-fitting pairs and only three hats were mentioned of KMB, how much they remind us of a past era!

Still, the mix of his three personae is injecting a touch of confused extremism into the Labour Party's deliberations on the EU. Just when Labour's leaders looked just about to get their act together, there is a chance that it may rain on their parade.

This was also the week when KMB opined that the Drydocks, of all places, should take on more workers. KMB's job-creation techniques are legendary. When he was prime minister, his gusto made the most tenacious socialists blush.

We will wait with bated breath to find out how KMB would also go about meeting the other national objective: correcting the imbalance in the government's finances. It is obvious that before he takes any decisions on the next budget, the finance minister should consider soliciting KMB's views on bridging the budgetary gap.

Let's return to KMB's hat collection. The first comes with his position as a Labour Party delegate for life. He also heads the Front Maltin Inqumu (FMI, or the front for Maltese political arousal). In addition, he heads the even more virulent Campaign for National Independence (CNI).

He'll be walking into Labour's general conference with the FMI's anti-EU message, and he has already sent a letter to the same effect to his fellow delegates, although he left the ruling triumvirate off his mailing list. He must have run out of stamps.

It could be worse. He could be carrying the even more strident CNI's battle-cry into the conference hall. For being spared this even sorrier spectacle, we are probably indebted to Mr Mintoff himself.

There are different shades of europhobia and residual euroscepticism under Labour's tent. CNI is against EU membership. FMI is merely against the conditions that were negotiated by the government, approved in the referendum, reaffirmed in the election and sealed in the treaty of accession.

However, the Labour Party, which counts KMB as one of its delegates, is led by those who want the party to cut its losses. They want to contain and reverse the serious damage incurred in the anti-membership campaign. The leaders want to move on. For them, the EU membership issue was sealed by the general election result, though not by the referendum results. But at this late stage, the difference between referendum and election is immaterial.

The leadership remains critical of the agreement finalised with the EU, but it also accepts the will of the people. The leaders present themselves as reformed and reasonable, although still wary of the consequences of membership.

Yet the corpse will not give up its ghost yet. If KMB has his way, we'll be discussing once again not only partnership, but also partial as against full partnership, membership à la carte, perhaps even Switzerland in the Mediterranean, and heaven knows what else.

On Friday, there was the unfortunate hint that Alfred Sant may still have some residual attachment to the partnership baby. He repeated his claim that the partnership proposal had won the referendum. This is Santian logic which still counts the departed as voting against membership. Will Dr Sant please be realistic and stop stating such nonsense?

KMB has chosen his hat. He now says that the motion to be presented to the Labour Party in November will not urge the MLP to pull Malta out of the EU. It will only demand that the party press for a new and more advantageous agreement.

To even think that the 24 other members of the enlarged EU would accommodate KMB's demand to start over again! The 15-member EU had no patience for the partnership nonsense. An enlarged EU would manifest even less tolerance. That the fringe element would even suggest reopening the EU issue when we are just crossing the threshold shows the penchant within the Labour Party to pour salt on its own wounds.

Labour has a struggle at both ends. Its current leaders try desperately to restore credibility, seeking the party's place within the European socialist house. At the other end, the fringe keeps reminding us of an obdurate and unbending past.

EU membership is the sharing in Europe's pursuit of long-term political and economic fulfilment. It is a national vocation, not a ride on a bus that you hop on and then jump back off once you reach the next bus stop. The fringe group has no clue of the damage their loony extremism would do to the nation's credibility. The resulting instability would wreak havoc on the economy, as Labour's saner personalities point out.

Unemployment

The increase in July's unemployment figures was an abrupt reminder of the continuing exposure of our largest industries to the worldwide slowdown. In July, the ETC reported a rise of 676 registrants on the previous month, and an increase of 737 over a year ago.

Such increases are not without precedent. Take mid-1997, a far smoother time in the international economy. During July 1997, registrants for unemployment increased by 538. Over the 12 months ending in July 1997, the unemployed increased by 1,506.

Those numbers are of no solace to today's unemployed. The abruptness of July's increase came from a confluence of sources, and it comes after several months in which weakness in our foreign markets had left our labour market relatively untouched.

Higher unemployment is particularly unwelcome in these precarious times, when the necessary fiscal consolidation makes public resources scarcer at home. Still, the most important determinant of the course of our economy is the international context. In this context, the most recent tourism and foreign trade data were quite encouraging.

European Parliament

This week marked the start of the EU Parliament's session following the summer recess. One of the topics tackled is of paramount importance for us in Malta. The Commission is now preparing the criteria that will be used to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the next budget period beyond 2006. In other words, establishing the rules on which the structural funds will be applied, who will qualify and the methods to be used to increase their effectiveness, reach and enhance solidarity.

There is, however, an anomaly in the present rules, which seems to have been missed by the Commission, by the almost 700 MEPs and by another country that is similarly affected. According to present definitions, island regions, such as Sicily, Sardinia, Crete, Corsica and so on, are eligible for certain programmes as a result of their special island characteristics. Yet islands such as Malta and Cyprus, because they are island states, having the capital city on the island, are ruled out from such programmes. This is not stated explicitly in the reports discussed, but implicitly through the definitions used.

For the first time, the presence of Maltese MEPs became a crucial factor. Since the introduction of observers in the European Parliament, I do not recall an occasion when an issue of such importance for an accession country came up. This week, Malta spoke and people listened.

Although there is controversy and various conflicting interests, it was a proud moment for Malta to be able to speak up and be listened to like any other member state. This would not have been possible without the decision of the Maltese people last March and April. We would not have a voice under the partnership option.

The issue is not yet resolved, but the debate continues next week and probably in the following weeks. To me it was momentous for Malta, a time when I truly felt that my country had finally come of age, could engage in open debate and appeal to principles of justice and equity, use reason and logic plus, of course, the political strategy that comes with a system of parliamentary democracy. It is a refreshing experience where Malta is exercising its new rights.

What a difference from the alternative path of isolation and exclusion from the European family of nations that Labour wanted. Truly, the Maltese people have chosen wisely!