Foreign Minister Michael Frendo and Labour MP George Vella yesterday agreed that two years was too little to see and evaluate the advantages of European Union Membership.
Dr Vella said people were promised a lot and have seen very little changes to their lifestyle while Dr Frendo said these two years have been very fruitful in Malta’s preparatory groundwork in order to be more effective in the future. We are still in a learning curve, he said.
Dr Frendo and Dr Vella were the main speakers in a seminar organised by the Reggie Miller Foundation entitled “Two years into EU membership”.
Dr Frendo said the most important thing for Malta is that it is not swept away by the EU’s momentum, adding that the Maltese authorities have been working very well together to make the best of EU membership. “We don’t just sit there and listen but we air our opinions and take stands on the issues being discussed. We cannot dictate the EU’s agenda but we can introduce our agenda to the EU,” he said.
The Foreign Minister also referred to Malta’s problems on irregular immigration. He said Malta has made it very clear that this is a big problem and a headache for Malta and managed to raise awareness about its extent. He said raising awareness was not enough and more concrete measures are expected to come Malta’s way soon. Joint patrolling and joint repatriation are just two examples of these measures he mentioned.
Dr Frendo said EU membership was placing a lot of pressure on the country’s resources because there is so much to do and say but he said that this was also being experienced by other new EU member states, who are also on this learning curve.
Dr Vella said two years were far too little to decide whether Malta was better off in or out of the EU. He said that two years into membership, people in Malta still do not know what the EU is all about. He referred to a recent Eurobarometer survey which revealed that 56.7 per cent believe Malta should remain an EU member state while 28.3 per cent said Malta was better off outside the EU.
He said that although Malta joined the EU, people are still being asked to dig deep into their pockets and admitted that the EU brought about stricter financial rules. Dr Vella said that whether in favour or against, EU membership is now a political reality and the MLP will respect this reality.
Dr Vella expressed his hope that the European Union funds which Malta will be getting for the period 2007 to 2013 will not be wasted and that projects funded by the EU will not have to be pulled apart because of shoddy work.
He said that before Malta joined the EU, there were 743 workers from EU member states working in Malta. Until March this year, the figure increased to 1,681. He said sales in the manufacturing industry decreased by Lm75 million and over 1,300 jobs were lost in this sector.
General Workers’ Union secretary general Tony Zarb delivered the closing address.