Alternattiva Demokratika – The Green Party chairperson Harry Vassallo yesterday said that the Nationalist government had betrayed the high hopes of those who were in favour of EU membership in the 2003 referendum.

Speaking at a press conference at the party’s offices, Dr Vassallo said that “The EU membership referendum was not won by the Nationalist Party but by a coalition of Maltese citizens who voted for a better quality of life, a different way of doing politics, more safeguards for citizens and more accountability of those entrusted for a time with the leadership of the country.

“Although it must be assumed that the vast majority of those voting in favour of EU membership were supporters of the Nationalist Party, one must keep clearly in mind that that success was achieved only with the support of Greens, of Labourites who disagreed with their party’s position on the issue and of Maltese voters who remain unaligned as is their right,” Dr Vassallo added.

“Every effort was made by the ‘Yes to EU’ coalition to ensure that it was not a partisan affair and success was achieved because of this new political development which seemed to overcome the divisiveness and the zero-sum politics of the past,” Dr Vassallo said. “In the years that followed, and indeed from the first days following the referendum result, the lack of European values in the Nationalist Party, elected to government on the strength of that victory and with the generous electoral self-sacrifice of Alternattiva Demokratika, have been amply demonstrated.

“In the past three years, the Nationalist government has maintained a fait accompli policy on every issue, keeping information secret until the last moment and holding sham consultations with the public and with stakeholders when it is too late. This is in direct contrast to the pre-accession consultations which held out the hope of a future in which important decisions would be taken with the full participation of those most directly concerned and of those able to offer their expertise,” Dr Vassallo said.

“The behaviour of the present government is shocking to those who had entertained high hopes of a modern, transparent government open to the input of the wealth of experience and commitment available through civil society, NGOs and committed individuals,” Dr Vassallo added. “On an EU level, the government has resisted developments favouring Maltese citizens such as the removal of the departure tax, while submitting to the importation of millions of plastic containers which create waste the country cannot handle. It has defied the EU on the hunting issue and on the extension of development boundaries and threatened to veto a Commission proposal on divorce which does not affect Malta,” Dr Vassallo said. “This has been possible also because the opposition is in no position to defend EU values of transparency and accountability, to fight for proper consultation or to denounce the lack of development of the rights of Maltese citizens as citizens of the EU. The opposition lacks the will and the credibility to address these issues and the government has been free to disappoint the justified aspirations of the ‘Yes to EU’ coalition with impunity,” Dr Vassallo said.

“In the past four years, the Nationalist government has made it clear to us all that EU membership of itself will not bring about the change so many of us desire and which we feel we deserve. It has provided us with a shadow of the kind of government we wanted to secure for ourselves and for future generations,” Dr Vassallo said.