Soon after I was announced as one of the Nationalist Party candidates for the European Parliament election of May 2014, I had a number of requests from various local newspapers to write articles for them. The Malta Independent was one of them and I wish to thank them publically for the initiative. Since this article is my first contribution to this newspaper, I thought I should utilise it to introduce myself to the readers and also outline the objectives that I want to work for, if elected to the European Parliament.  

For those readers who know little or nothing about me, I am a 35-year-old Gozitan. For the past seven years, I worked as a lawyer at leading law firms in Malta and my areas of specialisation are finance and tax. At the age of thirteen, I lost my eyesight, but I never let disability hinder me from reaching my goals. Upon becoming blind, I promised myself that I would never give up and I want to remain faithful to that promise. 

My disability was catalyst to my decision to get involved in politics. In fact, soon after becoming blind, I became active within the organisations of persons with disability. My aim was to improve the situation of such persons and because of that, I came across many politicians. From these encounters, I realized that the politician is the person best suited to make change happen and create well-being within society. I figured out that such is what I wanted to dedicate my life to and so, I decided to take the leap to become a politician.

The Nationalist Party was the obvious choice for me, because it always had a vision for the country which was a step ahead of that of other parties. In year 2007 and 2012, I contested the local council election in my home village of Xaghra and I was elected on both occasions. last March, I contested the general elections within the district of Gozo and although I was not elected, my result was really satisfactory.

The next step in my political life is the European Parliament election of May 2014. In view of this new endeavour, I set three objectives which I want to work for if elected.

One such objective is the need to bring the European Parliament closer to the Maltese. In fact, it seems to me that the Maltese do not consider the European Parliament their representative institution as much as they do in the case of the national Parliament and such causes lack of interest in them. I believe that such trend can change if Members of the European Parliament explain more on legislation that is passed at European level and consult more with people on how such legislation is going to affect them.   

Another objective concerns the need to help Malta exploit the European common market better. I believe that access to the common market is the biggest benefit that Malta reeped from EU membership. In fact, access to the common market attracts investment and business and consequently creates employment. Nevertheless, I think that Malta is not yet exploiting the common market’s potential to the full. Therefore, Members of the European Parliament need to identify obstacles and push for adequate remedy to remove them.

The last objective relates to the need for more support to persons facing social challenges. As explained before, I myself, face a social challenge because of my disability and so, I have the rights of such persons particularly at heart. The EU grants these persons with many rights, but sometimes they end up suffering uselessly, just because they do not know about them. Thus, I think that Members of the European Parliament should continue to consolidate rights, but also inform about them.

The three objectives referred to above, are not the only ones that I am prepared to work for. I truly want to become a voice of the Maltese in Europe and because of that, in the coming months, I will do my best to meet as many of them as possible, listen to them and set new objectives if necessary.

Kevin Cutajar

PN MEP candidate

[email protected]