After an intensive and sometimes acrimonious election campaign, next week the country will still have to face the same challenges that have been with us for so many years. The need to improve the quality of life of our people should be the prime objective of the next government.
Malta’s decision to join the EU in 2004 was motivated by the belief that such membership would on balance bring substantial advantages to the Maltese economy and, consequently, would offer better future prospects for Maltese families. Four years on, there is general disappointment among most people that we are still not reaping the benefits of such membership.
One fundamental fact of life needs to be repeated as often as necessary; and that fundamental fact of life is that “our future is what we make it”. No amount of political rhetoric will eliminate the need for hard work to improve our competitiveness, attract direct foreign investment, stimulate sustainable and significant economic growth, and ensure that we use our national resources in the most effective way.
As I had occasion to mention a number of times in the last few months, when you look at a broad spectrum of key success indicators, you realise that on certain very important issues we are failing badly in achieving the minimum level of success. I did this not to gloat over the failure of the outgoing administration to achieve success in various fields, but to shake the complacency that seems to be endemic in certain sections of our society.
For instance, we just cannot be complacent when we note that Malta occupies the last place in the EU for the number of young people who leave the education system without sufficient qualifications or skills to make them employable.
We have little reason to resort to inertia when faced with the statistical confirmation that in the past few years the Maltese economy was one of the worst performers in the new EU states for the generation of employment. Similarly, we have little reason to be happy about having the second lowest employment levels for both adult men and women in the EU.
Those who successfully sold us the EU dream were far less successful in delivering a better standard of living to Maltese families since we joined the Union. Our GDP per capita as a percentage of the EU average is in fact falling steadily.
When the heat of the election campaign cools down, we need to take responsibility for our own destiny as a nation and not expect others to resolve our problems. Membership of the EU is not so much about status as about opportunities to exploit our competitive advantages in a very demanding and tough economic environment.
The political clichés used by the outgoing and previous Nationalist administrations built on subliminal claims that membership of a 500 million EU market would bring automatic change in our future, is not only politically dishonest but also promotes complacency. The challenges we faced before joining the EU persist today and no amount of nice sounding mantras will change this fact.
We need to face the realities facing our country four years after EU membership with more honesty if we are to lead our society to a better future. We are competing with other EU States that may have started membership with a less impressive economic background, but who are now hungry to succeed and work hard and do not expect the Brussels bureaucracy to resolve their problems.
Malta is facing formidable challenges in the years ahead because in our first years of membership we did not grasp the opportunities that came our way. We need to tell our people the truth about what needs to be done to propel out country forward, and build confidence in our ability to succeed through hard work.
Courting popularity will have to give way as a priority to ensuring sound economic governance, if we are to overcome the challenges ahead of us.
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