The governments of Malta and France yesterday agreed in principle to closer cooperation between the two countries on safety at sea.
The move culminates a long French pressure on the Maltese government to beef up its record of safety in the ships under its registration – a long-held French concern since the time when Malta-registered Erika floundered off the Normandy coast and polluted the whole seashore for years afterwards.
Malta has always tried to shift the blame on to the Italian certification company but this cut no ice with the outraged French. Nor did last Saturday's announcement that the so-called Paris Memorandum of Understanding has given Malta what is known as the White Flag to signify that its regulation of ships was up to EU and world-safety standards.
At a meeting, held at the Elysee Palace yesterday evening, French President Jacques Chirac piled on the pressure and Malta had no option but to comply with the French insistence on closer cooperation between the two sides on maritime safety, higher quality standards all around and on a common examination of any problem that crops up.
This was done in a very gentle and honourable way. Maltese Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was welcomed at the Elysee with full honours and the cordiality and friendship of the French president was evident throughout. But the French have their points and insist on them.
Earlier in the day, Dr Gonzi got a foretaste of the way the French perceive Malta. A French journalist asked him point blank what does Malta reply to the perception it is seen as a refuge for money-laundering and for complacency with shoddy standards in ship regulation.
Dr Gonzi replied to both charges with claims that Malta now has a top-notch regulatory structure for financial investments and as for ship regulation, it is getting better all the time.
Yet, the pressure from France to do more, must have led Dr Gonzi to accept to even higher standards than the EU standards which Malta already complies with. Malta, Dr Gonzi must have realised, has nothing to lose and everything to gain with promising even higher standards all around.
The political coda to Dr Gonzi's two-day visit must not be allowed to shed doubts and shade on what must be considered a highly successful two-day promotion of Malta to French businesses.
In doing so, Dr Gonzi and Malta had the last laugh on President Chirac and his government who are forever insisting that France needs no reform and that it can still increase its social security at the same time as it is making its economy better – a contradiction in terms that is becoming evident day after day.
This is being made increasingly clear by the sheer number of French businesses who are seeking to relocate outside France to places where regulation is not so strangling and where one can be assured of returns on investment.
By attracting French businesses to Malta Dr Gonzi and his government are showing up, quite surely unintentionally, the flaws in the French government's arguments.
At the same time, it must also be said, the progress registered these past two days has been the result of hard work by Malta Enterprise in Paris, the Maltese embassy and also the Federation of Industry.
Apart from the many meetings, held on various levels, on Tuesday, Dr Gonzi was the prime speaker at a business breakfast organised by MEDEF, the French counterpart of FOI. It was attended by heads of companies who paid to be there (as there is no free meal under this government). The list itself is impressive.
There are some big names: Adreas Schneider, Vice-President Italy of Alcatel, Jacqaues Saade, president of the Supervisory Board of CMA-CGM, and Alain Dutheil, vice-president and CEO of STMicroelectronics.
But the other companies present come from those areas which have been indicated by the government as target sectors for inward investment.
Pharmaceuticals: Airox;
Air industry: Eurocopter, Fuselage, Safran, Thales;
Financial services: Calyon, Dexia, Ifanbanque, Sigefi, etc.
Obviously, not all these initial contacts will translate in future investments in Malta. But the interest is there and it is growing. And the testimonies rendered by such companies as ST, CMA and Lufthansa Technik helped no end in persuading the French decision-makers that if they are thinking of relocating outside France, Malta may be the right solution.
In his address to the business breakfast, Dr Gonzi also mentioned the companies that are coming to Malta such as SmartCity, the HSBC call centre, De La Rue etc.
Speaking to the media at the end of the business section of his visit, (as the President of Paraguay was ending a similar visit) Dr Gonzi expressed high appreciation of the work done by Malta Enterprise to attract such big names to express interest in Malta as a possible location for their industry and to FOI for collaborating with the government through opening up contacts such as with MEDEF.
What has been done, Dr Gonzi promised, with France, where interest in Malta was minimal, can also be done in other countries. The other ambassadors are warned: such visits will become the order of the day.
Winding down his visit yesterday evening, just before, rushing to the Champions League final, Dr Gonzi met the Maltese community at a reception offered by the renovated Maltese embassy. Gone are the tatty and old carpets and the embassy has had a welcome lick of paint all over (costing the exchequer nothing, the ambassador insisted, as her residence costs less) and the photos by Alexandra Pace spread around the embassy and the sheer warmth and number of the guests proved that the Maltese connection is alive and smiling in the French capital.