Pr puff

I was under the impression that the Broadcasting Authority awarded the Malta Labour Party "free" airtime space on our national television station to supposedly balance out the airtime taken up and paid for by MIC. I will refrain from entering into the merits of the Broadcasting Authority's decision but I believe, without mincing any words, that the Malta Labour Party spots are nothing but a shameful exercise packed with warped propaganda and blatant falsities.

It is pertinent to point out that whereas no accusation of bias has been forthcoming against MIC by any entity, political or otherwise, several allegations have been voiced by many that the Labour spots are fraught with rhetoric, assumptions and, inexactitudes.

Lacking space, I will, for now, only be tackling the first two of the Labour Party's spots, those about foreign workers and self-employed.

The Labour Party spots claim that a partnership agreement with the European Union will be negotiated according to Malta's special circumstances. They brag that: "In this partnership agreement between Malta and the European Union, European Union citizens will not have the automatic right to come and work in Malta."

It is more than likely that quite the opposite will occur. The proposed partnership will grant foreign workers the right to come and work in Malta as the EU will demand that the provision be included. In fact, Switzerland, a non-European Union country so close to the Malta Labour Party's heart, had attempted to exclude the right of free movement of workers in its agreement with the EU. We all know that Switzerland had to cave in to the European Union's conditions. It was told it could not pick and choose the conditions. Bowing to the European Union's insistence, the EU package had to be accepted in full.

In fact, this very year Switzerland will be opening its doors to receive foreign workers. It had to accept, annually, 115,000 foreign workers on a short-term basis, and concede to an annual quota of 15,000 foreign workers on the long-term basis. This is a fact!

How can the Labour Party unequivocally hypothesise on the exclusion of said clause in the partnership agreement it aspires to sign with the EU when the Swiss experience shows that this will not be the case? How does the Labour Party intend to succeed where the Swiss government it emulates so much failed miserably? The unanswerable questions posed and brewing doubts concerning the outcome of its not-so-special 'partnership' are evidence enough that the Labour Party's claims are sheer speculation.

The Labour Party similarly maintains in another spot that according to "this partnership agreement between Malta and the European Union, European Union citizens will not have the automatic right to come and work in Malta as self-employed". As I have already stated above, this claim is incorrect

What if the European Union imposes a condition providing for the right of freedom of movement to foreign workers in the proposed agreement? This is exactly what it decreed in the Swiss partnership in spite of the fact that Switzerland had strongly objected to the inclusion of the free movement of services and/or freedom of establishment clause.

Once again, Switzerland had to surrender its position and accept the whole European Union package. In the document outlining the conditions agreed upon between Switzerland and the EU, the Swiss government clearly states that:

"Two years after the agreement takes effect the supply of cross-border services by physical persons (company employees or self-employed) will be deregulated for a total period of less than 90 days per year". (DFA/DEA Integration Office/Information: The Bilateral Agreements between Switzerland and the EU: Report on the Agreements and Companion Measures with Explanations" (http://www.europa.edmin.ch , Bern, Edition 2000, page 3).

It is crystal clear that while spots aired by MIC mirror facts, based purely on what has actually been agreed upon in the negotiations, namely, that the Maltese government, at its sole discretion, can refuse working permits to foreign workers for the first seven years after membership and, in consultation with the European Union, for a further seven years after that, the spots aired by the Labour Party toy with whimsical suppositions.

The tentative shots tossed around in the dark at random by the Labour Party are simply a guessing game, a Labour wishful-thinking exercise teeming with conjectures.

Instead of building castles in the air in its fictitious foreign policy, the Labour Party of fragmented parts had better keep its feet firmly on Maltese ground and focus on gathering its pieces together on a local level, in more senses than one! Need I say more?