It was indeed exhilarating to see our Prime Minister take the floor to address the 3000 top political leaders and dignitaries in Warsaw last Wednesday, all hailing from the Christian democrat tradition. The Prime Minister went down history lane citing the inception of the European Union as we know it today with a clear focus on today’s circumstances. The Maltese flag fluttering behind him and European political leaders by his side, our Prime Minister wed Maltese circumstances to the value that Christian democrats treasure most; the dignity of the human being.
The world over is mired in economic turmoil. Malta is worried about the influx of illegal immigrants. The Prime Minister sees a threat to the dignity of the human being in unemployment, and equally in the tragedy of the drowned immigrants. “To us economic success equates to employment,” declared the Prime Minister. “We want markets to work for people and not people work for markets,” he continued. His vision is clearly rooted in the Christian democrat tradition that has built the European nations on the social market economy and not on unbridled capitalism; hence the respect for human dignity. However, the Premier kept his speech firmly grounded in today’s economic downturn. “Our citizens look at their leaders for politics of hope in times that look bleak at various levels,” he admitted. Indeed, these times warrant brave decisions and tough choices. Employment for the Prime Minister is a citizens’ right and just that, no more, no less. Thatcherism and Reaganomics do not feature on the Prime Minister’s radar.
A single market, innovative, growing, open and efficient is the EPP’s response to the pressures of globalisation. As the Prime Minister insists, the best way to work for social cohesion is to promote job creation. Only a climate of economic growth underpinned by a high level of business confidence can encourage companies to create employment. We want to achieve an efficient and open single market, promoting a dynamic and innovative knowledge society.
After five years in the European Parliament rubbing shoulders with the EPP’s best, I am absolutely sure that the Prime Minister’s words resonated big time with the audience. The Christian democrat thought rests on the value of human dignity and there’s no space for the proverbial “invisible hand”. The human being is paramount and hence markets work for people and not the other way round, as the Prime Minister aptly put it.
I attended European Parliament plenaries, committees, conventions, study days and what not when I took up my duties at the European Parliament. Immigration was always lurking somewhere in the background of security debates, with Spain pushing border control intermittently in the debate. To be fair, in 2004, the 9/11 and 11/11 tragedies were still a shocking memory that few could shake off. However, it has to be said that if immigration was to be debated, it was integration of second and third generation migrants that hijacked the agenda. There was no talk of repatriation, resettlement, still less burden sharing. It is only in the past two years that border control and immediate measures are heading the European agenda. It was only a week or so ago the European Parliament called for a Common European Immigration policy with Simon Busuttil’s report. It was only a week ago that a European Parliament’s committee unanimously approved a law calling for mandatory burden sharing. There was no EU policy on immigration when we’ve joined the EU in 2004. It was largely thanks to the Maltese, Spanish, Italian governments together with us Members of European Parliament that immigration is defiantly topping the EU agenda.
The Prime Minister’s speech in front of Merkel, Baroso, Poettering, Daul is a reminder that our philosophy based on human dignity cannot and will not turn a blind eye to this human tragedy. With the Gonzi administration at the helm, burden sharing of immigration will remain resiliently at the heart of the European debate.
Prime Minister Gonzi was right when he said that Europe’s extraordinary evolution has been inseparable from the Christian Democrat thinkers and statesmen like Konrad Adenauer, Alcide De Gasperi and Robert Schuman. Numerically and politically, Christian Democrats dominated the early years of the EU.
Promoting the importance of the individual in a pluralistic society, the principle of subsidiary and promoting the social market economy are among the few of the principal pillars of the EPP. Hence, the Prime Minister reminded the European leaders, “the ideology of over regulation, the undermining of marriage, the lack of value of all life, and the transfer of power to centralised bureaucracies are all part of the problem”.
Our Prime Minister and the EPP want more than ever before to underline the importance of our values and our principles. If these values were essential for the launching of the European Union, they are still crucial for its consolidation and its future achievements. Today the European Union needs to update, revitalise and modernise its inherent values and we, the Christian democrats, will work towards this.
We have regarded and will continue to regard humankind as the subject and not the object of history, and as a unique human being that is irreplaceable, irreducible and free by nature, regardless of colour and creed.
www.davidcasa.eu
MEP David Casa was present for Prime Ministers speech at the EPP congress in Warsaw last Wednesday. The EPP has launched its election manifesto for the 6 June European Parliament elections.