This week Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi will be lobbying in Brussels to try and ensure that Malta retains Objective One status within the European Union.
Objective One status literally means that a nation needs assistance to be brought closer to EU general standards and to qualify for Objective One status, a country has to register a GDP of 75 per cent or less of the Union’s average.
The figures for the period October 2000 to October 2002 show that Malta’s GDP during that time stood at 75.9 per cent of the EU average, and this would mean that Malta would be just above the threshold required. Malta is contending that using a different methodology and statistics, it would be inside the Objective One status.
Losing Objective One status does not mean that Malta would lose out on funding entirely, but that it will receive less than it would have done if it had retained it. The European Commission will be discussing the European Union’s budget for structural and cohesion funds for the period 2007-2013.
However, Dr Gonzi has stated publicly that in meetings with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, he will strive to ensure that the president is aware of two very important factors in reaching his decision.
The first, he said, was that the EU’s GDP average has been lowered significantly with the assimilation of 10 new states into the European Union. Most of these are former Soviet bloc countries that have low GDPs. The second problem, said Dr Gonzi, was due to the fact that Malta had a particular problem that no other EU country had – population density.
Dr Gonzi said that Malta has a population density which is 11 times that of the EU members’ average. He also said that he recognises that EU rules must be respected, but they should not stifle the spirit under which they were formulated.
First of all, we must understand that Dr Gonzi is in Brussels to seek the best possible deal for Malta. There is no chance whatsoever that he will settle for anything less than the best.
Dr Gonzi realises that Malta is recovering slightly, but is still in need of help.
This factor goes hand in hand with the need to keep this issue free of partisan politics. As we have said, the PM knows Malta needs help and he has pledged to do his utmost to get it.
The last thing we would want at this point is more political unrest that could do more damage to our reputation as a country divided by partisan issues.
Dr Gonzi, on the other hand, would do well to consult all Maltese MEPs on his visit to Brussels where he can have it straight from the horse’s mouth. Our MEPs practice their trade in the European Parliament and will probably have better ground-level information on the perception of Malta’s budgetary needs.
In his meetings, Dr Gonzi should also bring up the Lisbon Agenda issue and tell the European Commission that without Objective One funding, we would have a very hard time to achieve Malta’s goals.
We are not saying that Malta is a pauper, far from it. There were and still are EU members that do not have as good a quality of life as we do. But Malta desperately needs these funds.
The EU has helped countries such as the Republic of Ireland and Portugal to advance tremendously. What Malta needs now is just a bit of a boost to allow our country to truly catch up with the rest of the pack.
That boost can be obtained through retaining Objective One status and nothing should be done – especially by way of partisan politics – to endanger the possibility of us retaining this status.