As the 20th anniversary of Malta’s accession to the EU approached, I re-read ‘Malta’s EU story ‒ How 10 years of EU membership have changed the country’, a report I had written for the now defunct Today Public Policy Institute.
It made for bittersweet reading.
Written between 2013 and 2014, during the first few months of a new Joseph Muscat government, the report spoke about a country transformed over the previous decade, largely for the better:
“In [these] 10 years, the nature of our relationship with the EU has been transformed from the major point of political contention in the country, to a subject of national consensus. Much else has also changed in these 10 years, such as our level of connectedness with the outside world, our currency, the structure of our economy, the way we manage our environment, and our civil society.”
We pointed to the massive flow of EU funds invested into Malta’s human capital and its environment, and other positive developments such as the strengthening of our civil society, a dramatic upturn in foreign and direct investment, and a new economic robustness that helped the country navigate repeated economic shocks with surprising resilience.
These positives were not all simply the natural consequence of EU membership. Take that new-found economic robustness, for example. Between 2008 and 2013 the average annual GDP growth of the 28 member states was -0.1%; the seven other EU states that border on the Mediterranean contracted even more sharply, on average by 1.46%. Yet in those same years Malta, despite the economic turbulence all around, managed to grow by 1.5%, comfortably outperforming both its EU neighbours and the entire Union.
Regarding the environment and agriculture, the report pointed to the new flows of funds and support into these sectors, but found they remained “in the balance”.
“EU membership has done little to mitigate the country’s most pressing environmental problems that arise from its small size and high population density and insufficient or ineffective de facto public commitment to safeguarding the natural landscape. Urban sprawl on the islands has taken its toll over many decades, and the few remaining natural and rural spaces are still on the retreat.”
Overall, however, we found Malta should look to the future “with the confidence it has earned after 10, well-spent years of EU membership. But it must also keep its eyes wide open to the dangers and challenges ahead, in the knowledge there are no guarantees of success beyond our own hard work, resourcefulness and good governance… The EU cannot save a member state from itself”.
It is with sadness that I reread these lines. I remember the optimism of the EU pre-accession period, and that first decade of membership. There were massive challenges before us, and hard arguments over every little thing. But many difficult decisions were also taken, and often unpopular tough reforms implemented.
There was a sense of moving forward, of opening up, of a country freshly plugged into the world, learning, growing and finding its way.
Unfortunately, the last 10 years have crushed that optimism and turned us into tired, jaded cynics.
The country has continued to grow economically – the resilience that our economy gained with EU membership has become almost unreal. It sometimes seems like the massive investment flows triggered by accession have rendered the Maltese economy, for the moment, impervious to external turbulence.
To all decent young people reading this – please don’t leave- Patrick Tabone
But we have lost our way so badly in other respects. That positivity and pride in hard reforms implemented, of being a constructive member of the EU, has gradually given way to queasy discomfort and even shame.
First a disgraced EU Commissioner of Maltese nationality.
Then key government figures named in the Panama Papers, and – even worse – the flat refusal of the government to prosecute, or even remove them. True, ordinary people took to the streets and forced them out in disgrace – a rare moment of national pride in this last decade – but they are yet to be held accountable for their corrupt and criminal actions.
If this wasn’t enough, there was the deep national trauma around the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, for which the Maltese state was found to “bear responsibility”, not to mention Malta’s temporary placement on the FATF grey list, together with countries like Nigeria and Haiti.
Our economy is now based on third-country nationals who we pay as little as possible, fail to protect in any meaningful way, and then pack off home as soon as we can.
This new economic model is not a result of EU membership – it stems from government decisions and drift that took us far from where we want to go.
As for our environment – the government has systematically torn away the modest protections and safeguards so painstakingly built up with EU help, allowing unbridled development as a way of keeping people happy, with no thought for long-term consequences.
Troublingly, neither of our two main political parties are currently fit for purpose. One has been in government for too long, tired, in over its head, and stained by its association with Joseph Muscat and his accomplices. The other has lost its way, and its machinery, and very soul, seem to have fallen by the wayside for the moment as a result of a failure of leadership.
Beyond any one factor, however, is a pervasive sense of something lost in the sordid national scramble to get rich quick – our ‘għaqal’, our decency, our sense of ourselves as good, hospitable people working hard and honestly so that our children can do better than we did.
The result is we are tired and angry, grieving for what we have lost. Wherever we look, besides crooks, we see environmental degradation, collapsed standards, and politicians and officials who have forgotten they are there to serve the public, not themselves.
Our GDP grows, but it is for nought if we are not happy, if most of our children can’t wait to escape our shores.
It is bad faith, bad people and bad decisions that have brought us to this point. Good people, in positions of responsibility and working in good faith, can still get us out of here.
So, to all the decent young people reading this, or at least some of you – please don’t leave, or at least come back at some point. Get yourselves into place and start fixing this mess we have left you.
Patrick Tabone was a member of the Core Negotiating Group during Malta's EU accession negotiations.