From Mr E. Privitera

I was astonished with what the leader-writer wrote about the Maltese lira’s demise and the adoption of the euro (TMIS, 30 December). I found the heading “Goodbye Lm, and good riddance” in very bad taste and insulting to the Maltese people.

If one were to believe what was written, then each country, excluding perhaps Britain, Japan, Switzerland and a few other countries, should jettison their currencies and adopt the US dollar or the euro because these are the world’s strongest currencies of reference!

The leader-writer also claimed that the Maltese lira was not part of the Maltese identity. Strange reasoning indeed! Is it not a fact that when a country has its own national currency, that currency becomes synonymous with the country itself, and hence part of the identity of that country?

Was it not a fact that having our own currency, even if one could not exchange it anywhere else, we had a very useful tool to control the economy, precisely by creating an exchange rate basket, as well as having our own Central Bank setting the official rate of interest, and taking other necessary steps according to circumstances prevailing at any particular time? With the euro, control of Malta’s economy lies mostly in the hands of foreign European officials of the European Central Bank in Brussels whose decisions will not be based on Malta’s circumstances.

Is it not a fact too that with the present high value of the euro, Malta’s competitiveness has been weakened? And if the euro is the currency that is supposed to be so beneficial to member States, why was it imposed on the new member States? Why has it been rejected by the British, the Danes and the Swedes? Why do the big majority of the Italians, the French and the Germans lament the loss of their national currencies? Why did the newly elected French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, blame mostly the euro for France’s recent economic ills?

And as to the leader-writer’s claim, that “no vestige of Maltese identity is being lost”, may I add that even when Malta was ruled by the Knights of Malta, and later by the British, our Maltese identity remained intact. But our sovereignty was inexistent! Today, almost four years since joining the EU, not only our Maltese identity has been dented by the loss of our national currency, but even our sovereignty has been surrendered to unelected foreign politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels!

To conclude, may I repeat a quote by my good friend Christopher Booker, who is a leading columnist of The Sunday Telegraph, when Malta joined the EU on 1 May 2004: “Today they ring the bells. Tomorrow they will wring their hands!” The “ringing of the bells” is now over. The “wringing of hands” is not too far off!

Eddy Privitera

MOSTA