The EU's €750 billion post-Covid economic recovery fund is indeed a “prickly pear” but Malta has no other alternative but to subscribe to it in view of the “bad decision” taken in 2008 to adopt the euro, Labour MEP Alfred Sant said on Wednesday.

The former prime minister made his remark at a press conference ahead of a debate on the recovery fund in the European Parliament.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna made the prickly pear comparison last month when he voiced concerns about how it would be funded. He expressed fears that Brussels might intensify efforts for tax harmonisation - a move which Malta is vehemently against – to recoup the funds.

According to unofficial estimates, the European Commission is proposing that Malta’s allocation be of €992 million of which €350 million will be in grants and the rest in loans.

Replying to questions by Times of Malta Sant said Malta had no alternative despite the risk of getting pinched by the funding mechanism.

However, he warned that Malta should be careful not to accept this solidarity mechanism at all costs.

‘Court proceedings turning into a soap opera’

Asked if he was concerned that Malta’s reputation was being tarnished by revalations in court proceedings in connection with the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigations, the MEP played down such concerns.

While noting that other members states such as Italy, Poland, Hungary and France were also being attacked (for other domestic reasons) he said he was against magnifying national problems.

He described court proceedings as a “soap opera” in view of the time it was taking to wrap up the investigations.

The news conference was also addressed by MEP Josianne Cutajar who said that the judicial process should be concluded as fast as possible in order to deliver justice. This would also strengthen Malta’s position in the debate on the various rule-of-law reforms being proposed by the Council of Europe.

Mobility package and freight costs

The MEPs were also asked for their reaction to remarks by the chairman and CEO of Express Trailers, Franco Azzopardi, who warned that prices for imported consumer goods would increase as a result of the so-called EU mobility package which sets new rules on the use of trucks.

Cutajar, who sits on the transport committee, said that unfortunately when the matter was being debated by the European parliament in the last legislature Malta had no representatives. She said this package epitomised the perils of the one-size-fits-all approach, as countries in the EU’s periphery would be negatively impacted by freight costs.

Sant echoed this concern and remarked that the story could have been different had the private sector in Malta sounded the alarm bells when the regulations were still being debated.

Abortion

Sant was also questioned about abortion after having, last March, ben the only Maltese MEP to vote in favour of a resolution which called on member states not to use the pandemic as an excuse to restrict access to abortion. Asked if this signalled he was in favour of abortion the MEP said this was not the case.

It made no sense to deny this right in member states where abortion was legal and was considered a civil right because of the pandemic, he argued.

Sant however would not commit himself about his own views on abortion, saying this was a delicate issue which could not be simplified as either being all in favour or all against.