GonziPN has already given up the possibility of looking after the interest of Malta and its citizens on anything which may be harming greatly our country due to provisions included in the treaty of accession which the former Nationalist Party government had accepted. Dr Lawrence Gonzi says that there is nothing a Labour government can do to ameliorate the accession package in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and the shipyards. Incidentally, The Sunday Times and its sister paper The Times are repeating the same argument, quoting a “spokesman” of an EU commissioner.

What Dr Gonzi and Strickland House are not saying is that there have been instances where EU governments opened discussions with the EU, and came to an agreement about sensitive issues which were affecting very negatively their country in one field or other.

There is such a thing as the principle of “proportionality” in the EU treaties. Unfortunately this principle, which assumes that a member state may not be burdened with what it is unable to carry, is usually forgotten. Any Maltese government can even use this principle as an argument to come to an agreement with the EU on vital issues which could harm greatly Malta’s economy, especially considering the fact that Malta is the smallest member state. But GonziPN do not even want to try!

Those who say that the EU will never accept to discuss such matters, are actually saying that the EU is a monolithic organisation which is not interested in the plight of citizens! This is not what the EU Commission and its representative in Malta keep saying, namely, that the EU wants to be close to its citizens! An agreement with Malta in the sectors indicated by Dr Alfred Sant would be the best proof that the EU, after all, can truly be close to its citizens.

Eddy Privitera

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