Thanks to a strict Convergence Programme and its associated tax burdens, the government has managed to contain, but not eliminate, our massive structural deficit. But there is yet another massive deficit, which is outstanding, and about which little is said in Parliament or in the media.

I refer to the backlog of projects on the government’s agenda which have been languishing for attention. To this must be added the government’s commitments to catch up with its EU compliance obligations, in terms of transposing legislation and abiding by directives and regulations. This challenge is formidable. It will not go away.

I recall a Malta visit, in November 2000, by the deputy director of the EU Environment Directorate, Jean-Francois Verstrynge, who declared that the EU had about 270 directives and regulations concerning the environment, and that “very little has been transposed by the Malta government”.

In this respect, some progress has been registered. There are miles and miles to go.

Some of the EU directives are investment-heavy and relate to hospital incineration, stopping the sewage from flowing into the sea, the revamping of the Marsa power station and other measures to observe clean air standards and so on.

At about that time, the rapporteur on Malta at the European Parliament, Ursola Stenzel, resorting, no doubt, to a rule-of-thumb, estimated that Malta needed an outlay equivalent to five per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to comply with the EU acquis in the environment and nature protection sector alone.

By itself, this then meant that the government has to “increase its capacity in terms of human resources and skills among others”, to quote Mr Verstrynge again.

Outstanding agenda

Neither does this exhaust the government’s outstanding agenda.

A good part of the fleet of the public bus service has yet to be replaced. The Lm40 million project relating to the Valletta bus terminus, the entrance of Valletta and the construction of the former Opera House, continues to bob up and down the waves of public discussion. The Gozo ferry terminus project has become an open-ended venture. The state of many roads is still as abysmal as ever.

Taken in the mass, all of this is bound to gobble up enormous resources – enormous enough to be mind-boggling.

Yet, the government’s agenda is pressing. It concerns, in large part, the health and well-being of Malta’s resident population. It is also of major concern because the imperatives it imposes have to do with the sustainability of Malta’s competitiveness in the tourist sector, and with Malta’s ability to attract investments.

Negligence and dereliction

All the above justifies mature reflection:

1. The Maltese environment has been the victim of negligence and dereliction. A government that has been in office practically all the way from l987 has distinguished itself by its immobility in this sector only to wake up at election times

2. The inertia of the past has placed Malta in a situation where we have to face the accumulated outlay of millions of liri

3. The most galling aspect of this situation is that Malta is being called upon to conjure, practically out of thin air, considerable resources, running up to hundreds and hundreds of millions, and this to make up for deficiencies that were crying out for attention when Malta was incurring up to Lm 1.400 millions in public debt! This is a national patrimony!

Maltese taxpayers now appreciate, better than ever before, that when “money was no problem”, their resources could have been far more profitably employed.

4. The government has been trying to allay public concern with the prospect of launching self-paying projects, in the form of private-public partnerships, thereby relieving the Exchequer and the taxpayers of future burdens.

In a world of make-belief, such a spin could get by. In the real world, the sane electorate is not likely to buy this pup.

If a mega-project, worth say Lm400 million and involving the environment, could pay for itself without ruffling the Finance Minister’s feathers or intimidating the sensitivity of the Tourism Minister, what has stopped the government from doing the obvious at the word “go” in 1987?

Picking up the pieces

5. The sad story is that, after so many years of profligacy, the government has struck a phase of financial famine, having mis-spent so much of its resources. Those who relied on easily-available EU bonanzas have burned their fingers.

6. What’s past is past and cannot be undone. Malta has yet to come round and pick up the pieces. Sanitising the environment, shoring up the economy and ensuring its competitiveness have all got to do with Malta’s survival and deserve the highest priority.

Wouldn’t it make much more sense if all politicians, on each side of the political divide, work hand-in-hand to tackle Malta’s second, but undeclared, deficit? And shouldn’t they all attach more importance to their status in the eyes of the Maltese electorate than their status in the eyes of Brussels?

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