Last week, the Maltese delegation in the EPP-ED Group of the European Parliament organised a celebration for Malta’s accession to the Euro currency and to the Schengen zone in the European Parliament in Brussels.
The event continued to give Malta great visibility in the European Parliament and among its 785 members. It is also a continuation of a highly successful Malta Week organised also by our delegation last September in Strasbourg.
The event consisted of a performance featuring traditional Maltese folk music and a reception of traditional Maltese food and drink.
Arts and culture are effective media to promote one’s country with foreigners. They reflect the origins, identity and our history. This generates further interest in the nation and its people.
Food and drink are carved in our ways of celebrating achievements. Whether it is a wedding or any other occasion for festivity, the Maltese people tend to commemorate the occasion by sharing food from the same table.
The accessions to the eurozone and the Schengen area in the last few months are two events that deserve a great celebration. Moreover, we wanted to share our joy for achieving these important milestones within our European adventure with our European family and this was reciprocated with a large crowd attending for the occasion.
The EPP-ED Maltese delegation, which is one of the smallest delegations in the European Parliament being composed by Simon Busuttil and myself, is always striving to export Malta to the European Parliament, not only politically but also culturally. Following the huge success achieved when we brought over our colleagues of the EPP-ED, the largest political group in the European Parliament, these two cultural events continued to expose our islands more to our colleagues.
Such activities are a good opportunity to put on display our country’s cultural aspect. It is a chance to present our country in full colour to our fellow European brothers and sisters. It is indeed another occasion to export the Maltese product abroad and with foreigners.
These events should be held on a regular basis and that is why I encourage all the Maltese MEPs to organise such activities. It is very important to promote our country in all aspects, both on a political level and cultural level.
Moreover, the event was an occasion to exhibit the work done by the National Euro Changeover Committee during the euro changeover campaign. EU officials praised the Maltese information campaign on more then one occasion.
Among the people that praised the NECC’s work one finds European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia who during an interview made last year by a local newspaper he declared, “Malta’s work in preparation for the euro changeover has been exemplary.”
Our accession to the eurozone and more recently the completion of our entry in the Schengen area are two historic steps that will continue to generate further successes. Such milestones give further advantages to both investors and consumers alike. These achievements continue to integrate our country in the European Union and provide better tools to achieve more.
The Schengen Treaty, (named after the tiny village in Luxembourg where the Benelux countries first decided to lift their border controls), is an agreement between EU member states. This agreement sets out common border control rules with the main objective being the abolition of passport checks on travellers and providing tighter controls on the area’s fringes as well as closer cooperation between police forces.
This will mean that we will integrate with the EU. Moreover, Maltese citizens will have the same treatment abroad as other EU citizens with hassle-free travelling. While at the same time, strengthening controls on external borders. This leads to further cooperation between police forces, customs and the judiciary from across the EU in taking additional steps to combat problems such as terrorism and organised crime and drug trafficking.
With the European currency in our pockets and the Schengen treaty, I dare say that politically we have built a bridge that links our country to mainland Europe, a connection that makes our country more competitive.
The Malta Night celebration was an occasion to celebrate these accomplishments, which will continue to strengthen our European integration and further assist our commercial ties with neighbouring countries since now we are a real stepping-stone to the European market.
We are already experiencing this by attracting high quality investors that are recognising our country’s potential and the high abilities of the Maltese workers.
These results are being achieved thanks to the Nationalist Party that has always empowered the people to achieve their full potential, a political party that believes in this country’s abilities to succeed both as a nation and as individuals.
David Casa is a Nationalist MEP
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www.davidcasa.eu