Having for the past four years represented Malta on the Committee of the Regions of the European Union, I have come to learn that the best results are achieved through networking and coalition building. The lesson that Europe teaches us is that it is in our collective best interest to cooperate with one another and strive as much as possible to seek common solutions to the problems facing us all. Rather than focus on our divergences, if we truly want to seek a better future for ourselves and our children, then it is our moral duty to seek that which unites us.

This has been the vision upon which the forefathers of the European project based their hopes. Looking back, despite all the setbacks and difficulties, we have to acknowledge that the seeds, which people such as Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman planted in those dark and desperate years immediately following the end of the Second World War, have come to fruition. Indeed, the greatest achievement of this European project finds itself in the very fact that it is today unthinkable that European states go to war against each other.

As the Schuman Declaration launching the European project itself proclaims, Europe will not be built in a day. From the very first, it was intended to be an incremental project, where developments occur gradually over time through a series of small, often slow steps bringing us closer together. Let’s face it, who would have ever thought at the end of the Second World War that such warring nations as France and Germany could ever have a single market, a single currency, and unfettered freedom of movement among their citizens? That process is ongoing, a process which in the words of Robert Schuman, is intended to strive for the achievement of an ever-closer union among the peoples of Europe.

The European Parliament is itself another of these small slow steps towards achieving greater European integration. Originally intended to be a talk-shop made up of national parliamentarians, since 1979 the European Members of Parliament have been directly elected by the peoples of Europe. Thirty years on, the European Parliament remains in fact the only European institution that is directly elected by the European citizens.

Riding on the wave of political legitimacy which their direct election entails, over time, the European Parliamentarians have fought tooth and nail to secure for their institution an ever wider role in the determination of European laws and politics.

It is also with such thoughts in mind that I have allowed my name to go forward as a Labour candidate for the European elections, under the Socialist theme of putting ‘People First.’

Appreciating that the European Parliament has gained enough political clout to make a difference in people’s lives, I am firmly committed to do everything within my powers to ensure that the European Parliament uses this political clout in a way to assist people by putting their interests above everything else.

This is a vision based on my belief that it would be wrong to cut the umbilical cord that exists between the economic and the social spheres. I believe that the economy is there for the service of the people, and not the other way round. Furthermore, I am of the view that the current international economic crisis is putting paid to all those philosophies which glorified the false god of a free market.

The way I see it, if we truly hold the best interest of the people at heart, we need to do all that is within our power to stop those who want to take our societies back to a time when the economy was a free for all and the law of the jungle prevailed.

It is precisely because of this that I am campaigning for a social Europe, a Europe in which it is people – not money – that matter. I am on record stating that I believe that a new social Europe is required to tackle the vast inequalities that currently exist by focusing upon greater European cooperation towards improving the lives of people by working for the elimination of social divides, for the creation of more and better jobs, and for the setting up of a just and fair treatment of all persons, irrespective of their financial clout or lack thereof, sex or sexual orientation, race, colour or creed.

It is my firm belief that we should all aspire to have a stronger voice in Europe, noting that for far too long we have allowed faceless bureaucrats to take decisions behind our backs. We must ensure a greater degree of transparency and accountability because every decision, from the big policy plans to the smallest of regulations, affects our lives directly.

We need to ensure that the issues that are on the people’s mind are being addressed by the European institutions. Such issues as jobs, health care, education, a clean and safe environment within which to raise our children, need to be put at the top of the European political agenda. We need to move away from the grand designs and embark upon feasible projects which will make a direct positive impact upon people’s lives.

My commitment is clear. It is one based on the premise that in everything I do, I pledge to put the people first. It is a philosophy which is based on the understanding that politics is a service to the people, who ultimately are the true owners of any democratic society. It is our duty to ensure that the people we represent are enabled to turn their dreams into realities for their own sake and that of their families.

Claudette Abela Baldacchino is

a Labour candidate for the European Parliament election