UHM tells political parties to stop being partisan on EU

The Union Haddiema Maghqudin yesterday called on political parties to stop hijacking the European Union issue, turning such an important subject into a partisan one.

"Rather than challenging each other to try and obtain the best conditions for membership, the two political parties have sadly taken completely opposing views," UHM general secretary Gejtu Vella said at a news conference.

By taking such contrasting positions, the political parties were ultimately doing a disservice to the public, and dealing a blow to potential investment, Mr Vella said.

He urged the political parties to relay any comments or statements to the public based on facts rather than lies which, he said, had unfortunately infiltrated the discussion.

It also transpired during yesterday's news conference that the two main unions had commissioned the same authors to draw up some of their reports on EU membership .

However, despite the fact that the reports drew the same conclusions, the General Workers' Union and the UHM had taken different stands.

Mr Vella said the four reports commissioned by the UHM had concluded that EU membership would be beneficial to the Maltese worker.

The UHM had even drawn up reports on the cost of staying out of the EU.

Mr Vella would not be drawn into commenting about the GWU's stand, saying only that the same authors who had drawn up reports for the two unions had reached the same conclusion - that membership would be beneficial for workers.

The GWU has been strongly criticised by the pro-EU lobby because its final declaration on EU membership in November, 2000, did not reflect the conclusions of the 21 reports the union had commissioned.

Mr Vella said the UHM was such a responsible union because it was not affiliated to any political party.

The UHM general secretary also showed reporters a book written by Fr Dionysius Mintoff in the '70s entitled Malta Ir-Repubblika Taghna to back the union's pro-EU stand.

The book, which used to be distributed to secondary schools, ironically spoke of the benefits of the Common Market and how each member country of what was then known as the European Community had retained its identity.

As from this weekend, the UHM will be launching a series of discussions having as a theme Kelmtejn ghall-frisk which will be held every Saturday.

Personalities from different backgrounds will be discussing the pros and cons of EU membership.