Whilst on holiday in Malta, I have been reading your newspaper with interest.
In last Saturday’s edition, there were several items concerning the European Union about which I felt it to be worthwhile writing about.
As regards your article by Noel Grima on page 3 concerning the number of eurozone countries whose national debt is above 60% of their respective GDP, no mention is made of the strict financial terms of the Maastricht Treaty, signed in 1992. This governs a sovereign nation’s fiscal policy within the European Union. National debt to GDP is one of the items specifically covered by the treaty. Some investigative journalism on behalf of your readers would establish that these countries have actually exceeded the permitted levels, even prior to the present euro crisis, without any recourse from the EU. Perhaps also the reasons why the EU had been inactive?
It maybe worth recalling that the same treaty expressly prohibits a member state of the EU coming to the financial assistance of another. From memory either Clauses 21/22 or 25/26.
On page 10, David Casa’s informative article on the EU’s Competitiveness Report fails to mention, amongst other bureaucratic bungling, the madness of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which involves millions of kilograms of dead fish being returned to the sea each year under the discard policy; a simple fact that is not only wasteful but amply illustrates bureaucracy at work over the decades.
A bureaucracy is hardly the best source to effectively investigate its own shortcomings.
On page 15, your report on Poland and the euro, credits the head of the ECB, Mr Jean-Claude Trichet, stating: “The euro as a currency is a great success indeed... It is backed by remarkable fundamentals”.
Taking his speech as reported in your article, on both counts he couldn’t be more wrong. If either statement were accurate, the euro, the eurozone and the EU wouldn’t be in the financial mess in which they (we) now find ourselves. It is bad enough for the electorates to be continually misled by politicians on EU matters but for a professional banker to make such absurd statements is bordering on dangerous and irresponsible fantasy.
Mr Trichet fails to mention that the very concept of the euro was and remains flawed, that one size does not fit all the disparate economies comprising the EU and that the euro is the only currency to have been introduced without being underwritten by the issuing authority.
Regrettably not only the electorate of Greece will be paying the price for their irresponsible politicians but those electorates throughout the European Union, not only the eurozone, as their transitory elected politicians have pursued and developed a failed political experiment.
As the population of Greece is finding out: ‘He who pays the piper, calls the tune.’
I wish the people of Malta well and urge them to take an active interest in what their politicians are undertaking on their behalf.
Colin McNamee
Baltonsborough
Somerset, UK