On Saturday we will be called to decide on the future of the European Union. Through accession to the EU on 1 May 2004, the Maltese and Gozitan electorate gained the right to determine the future direction of the European Union.

Some of you might think that this election is not important. Some of you might even think that “whatever happens in Brussels” does not concern us and has no impact on our daily lives. Nothing could be further from the truth; the balance of power in the EP will determine the course to be taken by the EU in the forthcoming five years.

It will determine whether the responsibility sharing of irregular migrants will become a reality; it will determine whether our environment protection measures will become more efficient; it will determine whether Europe will continuing being a Union of Civil Liberties, tolerance and diversity.

Throughout the campaign, many of you have asked me the questions “why are you in this race?” and why on Alternattiva’s ticket? Not without feeling a certain sense of pride, I tell them that my party, the Green Party, believes that politics is supposedly there to make a difference in the lives of the European citizens. We believe in politics based on principles not on polls, on action not on calculation. This is different from what our voters have become used to. Certain others believe in the politics of fear. Look at their political spots – rather than try to convince you that their programme is the best for you, they try to scare you off their political opponents. Listen to certain sound bites on the Internet – a supposed statesman tried to scare a number of people from voting for us Greens. I have chosen to stop living in fear and urge all of you to do so.

We are in this race because we want to safeguard the environment and at the same time create a net of five million new jobs across the 27 member states in the coming five years. Jobs in the renewable energy sector, jobs in the environmental remediation sector, jobs in the insulation of homes, and so on. These are estimates that have been calculated by independent economists, not by the Green Party. Enacting laws that protected the environment created almost a million new jobs in Germany from 1998 to 2005, and with a stronger Green Group in the European Parliament we will takes this a step further.

The Greens are in this race because we want to transform this country into a truly European, liberal democracy. From the EP we will work in favour of the recognition of civil partnerships. All couples (including homosexual couples, parents living with a son/daughter, brothers/sisters living together etc.), as long as they have been living together for a certain period of time, should be granted legal recognition. They should be granted the rights to inherit each other; they should be allowed into those hospital wards where only spouses are allowed; they should be given the right to bereavement leave when the person they are living with passes away. This is our model of society, a compassionate society based on the tolerance of diversity. We will always be against any form of discrimination and will vote against it, unlike certain Maltese MEPs who failed to vote for a resolution condemning the ill treatment of gays in Kaczyñski’s Poland.

We are in this race because we want to improve the air quality for all residents, particularly those living in Sliema, Floriana, Hamrun, Msida, Marsa, Fgura, and others. We will not favour the interests of corporate lobbyists (such as the European Car Manufacturers Association). We will champion the residents’ right to a decent quality of life; we will work for a tightening of the standards for emissions from cars, particularly for emissions of particulates from heavy goods vehicles.

Alternattiva Demokratika, and similarly the European Green Party, does not receive any funding from these lobbyists. Ask our political adversaries whether they can say the same thing about their party and their European counterparts. Some Maltese MEPs voted against an EU-wide regulation of the relationship between corporate lobbyists and political parties. On the other hand, we have given ample proof of our allegiance to the residents’ causes. We stood up for the rights of the residents of Attard, Iklin, Mellieha, tal-Papa (Birzebbuga) when the current government decided to extend the development zones without conducting a proper environmental assessment as required by European legislation. My party brought this case to the attention of the European Commission and infringement proceedings against Malta are still underway.

We want to be elected, not to cover up the government’s non-implementation of EU laws. See, for example, what certain MEPs tried to do in the case of spring hunting in Malta. Political calculation prompted them to champion the cause of 15,000 hunters rather than the interest of the rest of the population, who are against hunting in spring. Our presence in the EP is a guarantee that the government does not run roughshod over the rights we acquired as a result of our accession to the EU. For Arnold Cassola and for me, your interests will always take precedence over political expediency.

Europe needs a stronger Green Group in its Parliament if it is to be a global leader in combating irreversible, human induced climate change, if it is to achieve the highest environmental standards and ensure the best quality of life possible for all its citizens, if it is to create jobs and yet continue on the path to sustainability, if it is to continue being a Union of Civil rights and liberties.

And, taking a leaf out of President Obama’s book, with your vote, yes we can!

Yvonne Arqueros Ebejer is an Alternattiva Demokratika candidate