European Parliamentary elections have come and gone.  After weeks of campaigning by all the political parties and candidates in the running, the electorate have chosen the six MEPs that will represent us at the European Parliament in the coming five years.

Through the ballot box, the Maltese and Gozitan electorate have given a strong vote of confidence to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in recognition of his performance and track record, and have also endorsed the Labour Government’s policies - barely fourteen months following the general elections of March 2013.

At the same time they have given a drubbing to the Nationalist Party which has seen its vote decrease on a national scale and being surpassed by the Labour Party by a staggering 33,000 votes or 13% - the same percentage gap as in the last general elections.

With hindsight, what in my view, was a surprise in these elections was not just the fact that the Labour Party has won hands down or that the two major political parties have each elected three MEPs - those were foregone conclusions even before the first vote had been cast.  The fact that the Labour Party achieved the same level of success as it did in the general elections of March 2013 and that the Nationalist Party won the third seat by a mere 209 votes was the real surprise.

Observers and analysts of the local political scene, even those close to the Nationalist Party, were not surprised with the end result and were quick to admit that it was not just something, but that almost everything was wrong with the Nationalist Party and its current leadership. They have admitted so, in their first reactions following the results of the MEP elections.  While showering praise on Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who has now led the Labour Party to three major election victories since becoming Leader, they also chided Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil for conducting a negative campaign and for being in denial throughout.

However, rather than dwelling on our past positive track record or on the state of disarray of the Nationalist Party, I would rather look ahead and think about where to go from here.  For one thing, we will continue to keep our feet on the ground.  We will not allow the exceptional results of the MEP elections go to our head.  We will continue to be in touch with the electorate, listen to their views and opinions and address their concerns.

Even more so, we will continue to focus all our energy on the implementation of the electoral manifesto.  We have already implemented 33% of our promises, something which I am sure contributed to our electoral success because we have given proof that we mean what we say and we say what we mean.  We have also shown that we deliver on our promises as we have done with respect to reducing of utility rates, giving the tax refund on second hand cars, setting up new childcare centres, increasing university stipends.  And the list goes on.

Following the MEP electoral success, rather than sitting on his laurels and savouring the electoral success, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has promised to double his energy and his output.  Whilst acknowledging the fact that a lot has already been achieved by this administration, in the same breadth he has also outlined the challenges that the Labour Government plans to address in the coming months.

Foremost amongst these challenges are the problem of precarious employment conditions which the government wants to eradicate once and for all, the reform of the public transport which is in dire need of a complete overhaul and the introduction of lower utility rates for businesses to help them increase their profitability and create more employment opportunities.  Government has also announced the building of a MCAST campus in Gozo.

Typical of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, immediately after delivering on one major policy reform, the latest being the introduction of civil unions, he has come up with another original proposal namely, holding of general MEP and Local Council elections all on one day, thus saving the country precious time, energy and money.  Initial reactions to this proposal were very positive especially from an electorate who is experiencing electoral fatigue.  Not surprisingly though, and very typical of the Nationalist Leadership, there has been a negative reaction to this proposal from Simon Busuttil.

From my Secretariat’s point of view, in the coming months we will also be doubling our efforts to finalize the process that has recently seen the launch of the draft Operational Programmes for the utilization of the ERDF and ESF funds during the funding period 2014-2020.  Only last Monday, we organized another in a series of public consultation meetings, this time in Gozo.  We plan to conclude this exercise in the coming months in order for EU funds to be made available for the financing of new initiatives and for new projects to take off.

Dr Ian Borg is Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds.