The MEP in Malta and Europe

The June 12 election for the European Parliament is a watershed in our history. For millennia, Malta was a pawn manipulated by great powers intent on dominating the Mediterranean - history was not made by us but with us.

The most glaring feature of our history was, therefore, that we were a colony; in 1964 the Nationalist Party obtained independence and, for the first time, the people became a true nation, responsible for its destiny. Our life no longer depended on machinations in some European chancellery but on the decisions in our own parliament.

Next month Maltese representatives will be in the European Parliament involved in the gestation of policy and legislation. As such, this will seal the final break with colonialism and constitutes a logical fulfilment of independence.

Regrettably, those who opposed joining Europe were either still infected by a lingering colonial mentality (unable to conceive of Malta as able to hold its own on a larger playing field) or were ready to consign Malta to a status of irrelevance.

Thanks to their union, the European community has emerged, phoenix-like, from the ashes of World War Two, as one of the strongest and most vital blocs in the world. It is economically, politically, culturally and technologically advanced and set to stalk the world stage as a major protagonist. We are now there, right in the nerve-centre of this vast and powerful partnership.

Candidates for the European Parliament, in my view, should not only have a detailed knowledge of the anatomy of European institutions and their workings. They should also have the right mind-set. We should not be going there simply to watch and react to potential dangers, as if we are manning one of our watch-towers; this seems to be the mentality of the Labour Party when one decodes their oft-repeated buzz-words, like "shield" and "defending the workers".

We should be going there to make a difference by being pro-active in all fields and at all stages of the formulation of policy and legislation. Let us not be simple-minded; this EU is still in constant evolution (as any healthy organism should be) and we want to be operative at all levels by a robust input of our views and interests.

As European parliamentarians, there are many areas where we can be creative and of great benefit to our country. Undoubtedly, we should have a particular brief as to the Mediterranean dimension of the Union; firstly because this is its soft underbelly. The Mediterranean enjoys a lower quota of economic prosperity and development and is also beset by areas of instability. This is also a zone of interface (economic, political and cultural) with the Arab countries; the Union is fully conscious of the importance of this aspect - hence the Euro-Med Partnership and Euro-Med Foundation.

I can see a major role for Malta in this sphere, given our status of neutrality and traditional good-neighbourliness with Arab countries. We can apply our knowledge, skills, inventiveness and linguistic facility to kick-start a process of Mediterranean renewal and political understanding which could have untold beneficial spin-offs on our own well-being.

European parliamentarians will be in an optimal position, through participation in various committees and by sheer intelligent lobbying, to ensure that the educational and vocational institutions in Malta will get all the financial and technical help they need.

Our greatest resource is human and our greatest talent is to learn. The bedrock of a modern society and its irreplaceable tool for prosperity, is knowledge. We need to invest in science, technology and IT in a big way; our future will depend on how much we know, what we can produce and how well we produce it. This is our only guarantee to secure jobs and a high standard of living; unless we invest heavily in science and technology, we'll fall by the wayside, marginalised into structured underdevelopment.

Ruefully, I can confirm, given my experience working for years at our UN mission in New York, that foreigners who have never visited Malta have either no knowledge of the place or, even worse, entertain false preconceptions of what we have to offer.

As European parliamentarians, we should have a mission to project Malta as a small, big country - which we definitely are. We should target potential investors and act as catalysts to promote financial investment in both directions; we should strenuously facilitate foreign investment in Malta while opening new horizons for Maltese entrepreneurs to spread their wings and go international. Everybody would agree that we need a quantum leap - we need to think bigger and extricate ourselves from the little-pond mentality.

I think it is crucial to stress that the role of the MEP is not solely in European fora; his task is to be the voice of Malta in Europe as much as the voice of the European Parliament in Malta. An MEP should be visible and heard in the home country; he should acquaint our society with the mood, controversies, and major targets, policies, trends, strains and problems reigning in the EP.

These reports should be objective and straight from the shoulder so that the public can form educated opinions. In this respect, I intend to have an office both in Malta and Gozo, so that I can offer information, suggestions and advice.

The European Union is complex, diverse and can appear like a maze, especially to the uninitiated. As an MEP, I would want to offer the public the feel of what is going on in Europe, e.g. labour trends, job opportunities, citizen rights, educational possibilities, social surveys, economic and financial indicators and the protocols governing EU funding.

Prophets of doom constantly lament that our voice in the EU will be swamped by more powerful and strident ones. I do not believe this; the most vital decisions are taken by consensus. How far our voice will carry will depend on us; we have to be balanced, professional, firm and rational. If our interventions are intellectually clear, well argued, morally defensible and dignified, our presence will not only be felt but also telling.

www.antontabone.com

Dr Tabone is a Nationalist Party candidate for the European Parliament election.