Alfred Sant – PL
What more can the EU do to help bring down current high levels of unemployment?
In trying to bring down current high levels of unemployment, the EU is hampered by the rules it has adopted to achieve budgetary balances in public finance and by its acceptance of neo-liberal management rules for the macro economy.
We need to reflect more deeply about these rules while placing them in the context of increasingly globalising tendencies regarding economic management. The EU’s ability to cope with global competitive pressures has declined with the years.
“More” Europe, both by way of enlarging the Union and by way of deepening Union decision-making structures, has been accompanied by relative and/or absolute stagnation. Is this just a contingent association or is it causal?
What should the EU be doing to help businesses generally?
The main recipes that have been attempted in recent years were deregulating labour markets and cutting red tape. Both have hardly worked well. Deregulating labour markets has promoted precarious work conditions and reduced the purchasing power of consumers. Red tape was cut with the right hand while the left hand was piling up new regulations, or vice versa.
The truth is that the EU economy has become a tissue of diverging economic trends. We need to move towards some agreed “division” of labour and economic competences between member states or regions thereof, on the back of new infrastructural spending that itself creates jobs while establishing the basis for future competitive investment. Obviously, the neo-liberal power centres that control the agendas will cry foul when/if something like this is attempted.
In the Maltese context, applying one-size-fits-all policies to European businesses has clearly not worked to the advantage of Malta’s SMEs. Here too we need to assert ourselves more.
Are there any areas, in particular, where you feel Maltese interests needs protecting?
Among the most salient, you’ll find: agriculture, fisheries, small scale retailing, the rights of workers, irregular migration, infrastructural projects that are hampered by local diseconomies of scale and/or undermined by EU state aid rules or one size fits all policies.
The EU and the USA are in the process of negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Is this something you support and do you have any reservations about the benefits of this free trade agreement?
A “trade and investment partnership”between the US and the EU is a good idea if the parameters for it are rightly drawn up. If it serves as an engine for further globalisation in the neo-liberal mode, it will backfire.
Unfortunately, the claims being made for it are over the top and fears that the process is being driven by the interests of multinationals probably correct.
The process had best be conducted on a step by step basis, with set specific and sectoraltargets that are clearly stated beforehand. They should be transparently assessed as measures to implement them are introduced.
Moreover, certainly on the European side, it would be crucial to make sure that trade unions (at least what remains of them) and civil society are fully involved right from the outset in the evaluative process.
This EU election delivered something of a blow to established parties, with eurosceptic parties doing comparatively well. Do you feel that at a political level the EU has lost touch with issues that matter to the people? And if so then what needs to be done to reconnect?
The elites who have wholeheartedly promoted the European project have been too hasty, too overbearing. While the international economic situation was balmy, their project to push integration forward with full speed ahead and no consideration of the real consequences for millions of ordinary lives, rolled forward.
When the international economic situation got stormy, the edifice they built had limited political and social foundations.
Decison-makers and participants in the European project need to go back to basics, think over their methods and aims, and redimension the ways by which European integration is being powered.
Above all, we need to re-establish the sentiment that Europe as of now, can only function well as an institution, if it operates as a conglomerate of nations, not as the USE.
Therese Comodini Cachia – PN
What more can the EU do to help bring down current high levels of unemployment?
There is no quick fix solution to unemployment in Europe. In my view failure to support economic demand sufficiently during an economic crises rendered the situation more pressing than it was. Nearly half of those out of work have been doing so for more than a year. This entails an effective structural reform to vocational education and training system in every member state subject to minimum harmonized solutions at an EU level.
Equally pressing is the issue with youth unemployment, whereby 5.6 million young people are unemployed. This is equivalent to 23%. No joke, considering pressures on public coffers due to aging population. The issue needs to be addressed at source job mobility to help tackle youth unemployment could be further developed to open new horizons, whilst further efforts on education remains key.
What should the EU be doing to help businesses generally?
I believe there is substantial potential in improvements concerning resource efficiency which may generate productivity gains. This sector has a lot of potential which will enhance competitiveness and business opportunities for SMEs. Such action at EU level should dovetail with reducing bureaucracy and simplification of cross-border networking. I think there is much more to do on B2B legislation to instil that missing confidence and protect against internal market rights abuse.
Are there any areas, in particular, where you feel Maltese interests need protecting?
After a year of campaigning I think people are concerned with unemployment, obstacles for economic growth and business growth, and at the same time want an enhanced quality in standard of living. Of course, on a more focused note the issue of immigration has specific interests which need to be seen to.
The EU and the USA are in the process of negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Is this something you support and do you have any reservations about the benefits of this free trade agreement?
There are several implications in a free trade zone comprising 800 million living in two continents. We pride ourselves in belonging to a block with very high standards which should not be compromised to reach an agreement at all costs. European standards are our trademark and in my personal view should not be weakened, particularly when it comes to genetically modified foods. On the other hand I am in favour of facilitating business. So I would say my reply to your question, is a cautious ‘yes’.
This EU election delivered something of a blow to established parties, with euro sceptic parties doing comparatively well. Do you feel that at a political level the EU has lost touch with issues that matter to the people? And if so then what needs to be done to reconnect?
The performance of euro sceptic parties in these elections is a message not only to the European Parliament and its established parties as well as MEPs, but is also a message to the national parliaments and politicians. It seems to me that people do not as yet appreciate their role within the EU nor are they fully aware of the effects in their daily life that the work of the EU institutions brings. This is not the electorate’s fault, but rather that of the EU institutions as well as the national institutions. The EU institutions have not communicated their work and role effectively, while national institutions at times depict the EU as the one to blame for everything that goes wrong without indicating that they too play an active role in what the EU does.
Do you believe that the mentality regarding women in politics is changing, given that the Maltese people elected 4 women and two men to the European Parliament?
On the whole there has in general been a positive development which indicates that the electorate is willing to trust female candidates with political responsibilities. However the election of 4 women is not to be taken as an indication that there are no longer any obstacles for women to enter politics and obtain the trust of the electorate. If you look at Roberta, Miriam and Marlene you see that the women elected had already risen above social barriers. In my opinion, the result shows that once a woman proves herself then the electorate will show faith in her. This however does not mean that women face a level playing field at the start of their careers.
Given this result, are gender quotas still required or should they be abolished?
Quotas are there to create a level playing field in which men and women are provided with an equal opportunity to participate. I agree with quotas as temporary measures to drive the bringing down of social barriers.
What committees would you prefer to sit on?
Within the party committees are proposed in a way that ensures the full use of each MEP’s capabilities. But committees are only proposed and there is no sure guarantee that these are accepted at a European Parliament level. Despite this, since my background is in the legal field, human rights and education I would like to be given an opportunity to focus on turning European rights on paper into practice.