A recent proposal by Stefano Mallia, president of the European Economic and Social Committee Employers’ Group, to entrench EU membership in our constitution led to a reaction from the prime minister worthy of further examination.
Mallia had said he was making this suggestion in order to prevent a future “populist” leader from taking the country out of the union.
Malta’s history and geographical location suggests that there are naturally different sides that one can take on the subject.
Are we by nature and genetic structure European? Having turned Muslim during the Arab Occupation from 870 until 1090 (presumably more for tax avoidance reasons than for conviction) and then reverted to Christianity upon the arrival of Roger De Hauteville shows how we moved in the direction of what suited us at any given time.
Our instability and lack of convictions seems endemic to us as a people. During most of the occupations by the various feudal medieval and empires of Europe, the local population was docile and submissive. Under the Knights, the local population was visible by its absence.
It was only the uprising against the French and later the movement against the British leading to independence that the Maltese began to show some strong signs of belief in themselves.
Even our geography, being further south than some of the northern parts of Africa, has marked us throughout the centuries. It was only the strategic location of this tiny archipelago that made it of interest to the powers of the different ages. Like a cork floating on water, the Maltese were sometimes African and at other times European.
We even changed sides halfway during the Second Punic War. The Romans called us Barbarians since we spoke no Latin, and the Arabs thought we belonged to them. At the Congress of Vienna, the map of Europe was drawn with a line that curved southwards between Gibraltar and Cyprus to include Malta in Europe since it was strategically important to the victors at the table.
Yet when US President Ronald Reagan drew the line across the Gulf of Sirte to force a no-fly zone for African Libya, it was Malta and its government of the day who warned Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi of incoming US jet fighters that flew over our airspace that, it is suggested, saved the life of that tyrant.
Being European or not became even more apparent during the Dom Mintoff regime when approaches towards China, North Korea, Cuba, Libya, and other rogue states became the order of the day, with more and more signs of anti-European attitudes subliminally appearing.
Later on, when the ‘other Malta’, the Malta that fought for and obtained independence from Great Britain came back to power and began to try to convince the other half that Malta was really European and that our place as a minute independent country was in the fold of post-war European nations, the division among the Maltese came to the fore.
The battle lines were drawn and the anti-European faction fought hand, tooth and nail against our application to join the European Community, later the European Union. All sorts of arguments, economic, social, political but not ethnical were brought up.
Since I, a convinced European, was directly involved in the activities connected with Malta’s application to join the European Union between 1992 and 1996, I will not comment on the issue.
Suffice it to say, I am convinced that we are a European country and that we belong firmly and forever within the European Union for as long as it will exist. I am biased on the matter.
History showed a small majority of Maltese in favour of EU membership with a very large slice of the population being against. Yes, we were and still are a divided nation on this as well on very many other issues.
Our instability and lack of convictions seems endemic to us as a people- John Vassallo
Yet the issue of EU membership which Mallia raises in his suggestion is whether Malta joined the EU for economic gains alone or for the glorious ideals of the founding fathers whereby all nations sharing similar basic values should join together, eventually leading to a federation of United States of Europe, in order to protect the bloc’s people and improve their quality of life.
The objective is to share sovereignty, institutions, assets and strengths, and to help the weaker parts of the continent to catch up economically with the wealthier nations of the group.
Abela’s response to the suggestion of entrenching EU membership in our constitution was that there is no need for this since “everyone” in Malta is in favour of the EU and he couldn’t imagine a context where Malta would consider leaving the EU.
However, Abela also said he was in favour of retaining member states’ veto in certain policy areas and specifically mentioned that taxation should remain in the hands of individual EU countries.
He has therefore shown his hand. He only believes in the Europe which provides handouts and which we can block whenever it acts for the greater good by causing some pain to some members. He only believes in the Europe of the benefits and the freedom to help others within Europe avoid or evade taxes at home by attracting them to Malta.
Mallia, like me, I presume, knows that the time is nigh when the EU, forced by Europe’s relative weakness vis-à-vis the US, China and Russia and the BRICs, and unable to act as one because of the veto, will be forced to harmonise all its laws and eliminate the veto. In this way, the majority will rule and the EU acting with one voice may regain some bargaining powers when dealing with the rest of the world.
If we joined for the European ideal, this must sound like music to our ears. If we joined only to gain economic benefits, this may sound like a siren warning of dangers ahead.
I believe in Europe and my fear is that many Maltese, fickle as they always were throughout their history, would risk opting to leave the EU if they feel that Malta must learn to compete on equal terms with its partners and give more than take from the pie. A constitutional entrenchment will be a good bulwark against such tendencies.
Since we cannot convince all Maltese about the benefits of the EU, then we should ensure membership of Europe becomes one other brick in our constitutional foundation.
John Vassallo is a former ambassador to the EU.