It speaks volumes about the Malta-centric mentality that we, the smallest nation in Europe, tend to boast or aspire to boast we are the best in Europe. Not even the biggest nation in Europe dares boast that, but we do.
The dream, the aspiration, is so strong, so potent, that Labour used it with profit in the 2013 election campaign, leading people to forget it had bitterly campaigned against EU membership and then against getting the euro.
From aspiring to the kind of relationship with the EU that the Brexit supporters now aspire to – partnership, or being outside the EU but in a relationship of sorts with it – to suddenly turn round and claim that Malta will be the best in Europe, that’s one hell of a U-turn.
What the people who voted to be the ‘best in Europe’ meant by that is probably nebulous and meant different things to different people. Obviously, in its campaign, Labour never quantified what it offered.
Over the past months, this has generally been taken to be referring to the economy. It is time to examine this claim, even though only three years have elapsed in this government’s term.
In popular terms, this has hinged on the number of the registered unemployed, where Malta, from around 6,000-7,000 registered unemployed has seen that decrease to just under 4,000 in April. Malta was one of the countries with the lowest percentages of unemployed and it has strengthened its position to stably be the third lowest country in the EU with around five per cent, while countries such as Greece and Spain are still in the 20% brackets.
And in yesterday’s Orizzont, Clyde Caruana, ETC chairman, said the target is to get below the 3,000-mark by the end of this legislature.
It is interesting to see how this reduction has been obtained. It is true that the government’s provision of childcare centres has helped women who would otherwise never have entered the job market do that. But it is also true that this government has been far more stringent about tackling the long-term unemployed by offering training courses and striking people off the register when they do not comply.
But the level of registered unemployed is only one way to gauge the good health or otherwise of an economy.
A better way is to measure the amount of people working, and here Malta is not the best in Europe. According to the NSO Labour Force Survey issued in March, total employment stood at just under 187,000 or 51.6%, while the inactive portion of the population stood at 45.6%. This puts Malta very definitely in the lower group of countries, though not in the lowest group.
It is well-known that female participation in the workforce used to be among Europe’s lowest, though it has picked up mainly due to child-care centres.
We must factor in the ever-increasing amount of foreign workers who, as Minister Edward Scicluna often says, have helped keep wages in Malta from increasing in a tight market.
Maybe a better measurement is to calculate the average take-home wage but here Malta, although the situation has improved in the past years, is still at the lower end of the second tier of EU wages.
Now that is only one aspect of measuring an economy. Another parameter is that which regards growth. Here, Malta has registered the highest growth rate in the EU in the first quarter but that, on its own, does not say much. Poor countries, for instance, sometimes register a higher growth rate because they start from lower levels.
GDP for Malta is listed as $10.514 million by the IMF for 2014 in 136th place and $9.642m according to the World Bank in 2014 in 135th place. When it comes to GDP per capita, Malta is in the 30th place according to IMF at $35,826 per person, and in the 37th place according to the World Bank at $29,526. Malta is surpassed by 11 other EU countries according to the IMF list and by 13 other countries including Italy and Cyprus according to the World Bank. Not the best in Europe, so far.
There are of course myriad other parameters on every aspect, for Europe is nothing without statistics on everything.
From all the statistics, it is also possible to establish, for instance, where we stand as regards educational attainments. For far too long, we have been measuring our success by the number of students continuing at tertiary level, which is also important, but there are other measurements and they come not just at EU level but also at international level.
And then of course there are parameters and statistics as regarding justice and the law courts. When I recently published the results of a Eurostat survey on justice and the law courts which showed that Malta still lingers almost at the bottom of the EU pile (something which was complacently commented in the Italian media who seemed happy that Italy was not the worst, but Malta), I got chewed up by a ministerial Right of Reply which pointed at the [small] progress that has been made. Fortunately, on that same day, the competition came up with a story about the National Bank and this perfectly exemplified the delays in our court system.
The best in Europe and the unholy trinity of the Panama Papers
We are certainly not the best in Europe to have a minister of this republic in the EU mentioned in the Panama Papers. Nor are we the best in Europe in the fight against corruption when that minister has been kept on as a minister.
Europe is fighting against corruption, against money laundering, against tax havens. Where are we when we permit a minister and a chief of staff to do what they did in the face of us all?
That they have now taken out their bazookas and are suing everyone in sight doesn’t impress the vast majority of Maltese voters, whether they vote PN or PL. On the contrary, such action reinforces the perception the entire country has formed about them and their hidden backer/s.
We are fast becoming known, not just in the EU but the world as a whole, as a dicey country. The warning had been sounded when the passports scheme was first introduced. We have now gained access to the first names of those who are new holders of a Maltese passport and who have been granted citizenship rights and they do not seem to be people one would want to have in the queue to vote in the next election.
That ruse to gain money from an untapped source does not seem such a good idea now. Nor has it made us the best in Europe, in a Europe that is scared of letting in people with a shady background (or who knows, even a terrorist background) and giving them leave to travel anywhere in Europe without hindrance on the strength of a Maltese passport.
As I was writing this, I was distracted by shouting – it turned out that Parliament, or rather its House Business Committee, met, exceptionally on a Saturday afternoon, and tempers were really hot. The parliaments of Europe are not new to shenanigans of this kind – from Dennis Skinner’s provocation in the House of Commons to the more colourful protests in the Italian one – but was this just another way of proving we are the best in Europe?
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