Three ways of looking at a blackbird

In his famous poem Wallace Stevens actually considers 13 ways of looking at a blackbird. But the blackbird I have in mind is the European Parliament (EP).

The first way is to think of the EP as Malta's first line of defence against the onslaught of impositions we might expect. Opportunities might also come our way but the MEPs from Malta will essentially form a reconnaissance team of the crack Red 'N' White Berets.

This is the Malta Labour Party's official way of looking at the EP. It makes the choice of June 12 a matter of choosing the candidates and party best known for being cunning and indomitable - the party of Asterix and Obelix against the forces of Caesar.

The second way is to think of the EP as a place where one lobbies on Malta's behalf. From this point of view, the EU is largely good for Malta. But it recognises that Malta's interests will often require special advocacy.

This viewpoint sees Maltese MEPs as primarily Maltese, rather than Socialists, Christian Democrats, Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Greens or whatever. Yes, the seating in the EP is arranged according to party affiliation. But the differences in party affiliation fade beside the national interest.

This point of view leads to the electoral line adopted by Alternattiva Demokratika: it is in that national interest to maximise the number of political parties in the EP where "the Maltese voice" is heard. Even if you are a convinced PN or MLP supporter, it is in your national interest to see that there is a Maltese MEP in the Green Group.

It is the logical conclusion if you believe that political party manifestos and principles do not really matter. So it makes no difference to Malta that the Greens believe, say, that "all women have a right to information and non-directive counselling in the case of a crisis/unplanned pregnancy" because although that means information on the option of abortion, AD do not agree with it and in any case the legalisation of abortion cannot be imposed on Malta.

Similarly, it makes no difference that both the Party of European Socialists (PES) and the European People's Party (EPP) want to strengthen the European Security and Defence Policy in a way that calls for a greater role for a common military force - because Malta need not participate.

Nor does it matter, actually, what any European party says on a range of issues, from nuclear energy to the family - since either the issue does not arise in Malta or else it cannot be forced upon us. Or rather, it does not matter if you choose the second way of looking at the blackbird.

The third way does look at what the EP might bring to Malta but also at what Malta might take to the EP. It takes seriously what one of the EP candidates, Joe Friggieri, calls "the force of ideas" - the argument that ideas and policies are part of political action, that the EP is an institution where people think together in political parties and on committees and that the Maltese electorate will not make the most effective use of EP seats it has allocated to it unless it votes for MEPs whose ideas matter.

Abortion, nuclear energy, the role of a European rapid reaction force, attitudes to the family... all these things matter to Maltese voters if they affect how Europe relates to itself and the rest of the world, because anything that Europe does is something that involves Maltese voters, too.

Taking manifestos and party principles seriously changes the way one looks at the June 12 election in two ways. First, it suggests that the real European choice is between voting for the centrist PES or EPP, on the one hand, and voting for the radical Greens, on the other.

Although the PES and EPP snipe at each other in their respective manifestos, you will be hard-pressed to find differences between them that leap to the eye. On the economy, security, the Mediterranean, social protection, immigration... you will find different emphases but no radical difference.

This is partly because the PES has not published a common action programme, but mainly because the PES and EPP both have a centrist platform that modifies the European status quo without revolutionising it.

On the other hand, the Greens want to set up a European Peace Corps (until last year they wanted to abolish Nato), re-regulate the economy in significant ways, reverse the flow of revenues between North and South, give non-EU citizens the right (after no more than five years) to take European citizenship if they have been legally resident in the EU...

Second, looking at the manifestos makes you wonder, yet again, how easily the MLP will get on with the PES, whose manifesto repeatedly suggests that it is the party of greater harmonisation, while the MLP sees this as unsuitable for Malta.

It makes a great difference which way you look at the blackbird. Which way you choose to look, of course, is up to you.