Malta is a country that fears change. When the nation was being asked to vote for European Union membership, it was completely polarised and split into two very distinct camps.

Unfortunately, when it comes to change, this country experiences a lot of scaremongering from the political parties and this in turn leads to tongue-wagging on street corners, which further fuels the fear.

Humans are, after all, creatures of habit. We like stability and we like routine, but sometimes change is necessary – like changing our currency.

There are a full 18 months to go before we can adopt the euro as legal tender on 1 January 2008, providing of course that we meet the Maastricht criteria of reining in the deficit to three per cent of GDP.

But already, the fear has set in. Of course, politics does not help, and neither do certain trade unions, when they start to spout off knee jerk reactions. Sometimes, these reactions do not even have a solid base behind them, so it further fuels specu-lation.

The first thing that people must remember is that joining the eurozone was a pre-requisite to joining the European Union. In fact, we are obliged to do so. People knew this before but, for some odd reason, the issue is starting to ferment under the surface and people’s murmurings and grumblings can already be heard.

Are we forgetting that most of Europe has already gone through this change? Yes, there are bound to be a few hiccups along the way, and yes, it is going to be a bit of a pain to get used to the new prices and the new notes and coins.

But is it really going to be that hard? The answer has to be “no”. The easiest way to get people used to the new system will be through dual pricing and this again has raised arguments in various sectors.

But dual pricing must be the way forward. It will be simple enough. The euro is still a foreign currency. The prices will only be there for the benefit of the consumer who can get used to what is worth what in the new currency.

The biggest worry that people have seems to be inflation, but studies in Europe have shown that, apart from other factors, such as the global rise in the price of oil, the net inflationary percentage increase that changing to euros caused was a miniscule 0.3 per cent.

Speculation about inflation is precisely what inflation is. If people keep talking about it and expecting it, it will happen. Why? As executive director of the National Euro Changeover Committee Alan Camilleri says in an interview in this newspaper today, if a person is expecting prices to rise – he will not realise that the prices are not a fair reflection and that the trader might be abusing the system. That way, inflation will be allowed to grow.

Another factor that could contribute towards inflation is mental calculations in conversion. With the 0.4293 conversion rate, one Maltese lira is 2.33 euro. However, it is important for the public not to round off the conversion to 2.5 euro since this in itself leads to creating inflation.

The NECC put it simply: Malta is not changing its prices. It is simply changing the currency with which it works. There will be a little short-term pain, but the long-term gain is much greater. The euro allows the Maltese the freedom of having a world-renowned currency that can be used all over Europe – but will also be changed in other countries around the world without problems.

It will also lead to more investment from abroad, as the economic climate will be much more stable than it is as present and interest rates will also be slashed. Yes, it will be a change and it will cause some problems, but we should not be afraid of it. Fear of this change will only prolong the short-term pain. We must adapt and embrace this new currency. It’s only different paper and coins.