Finally we’ve arrived at the point when Brexit will have to be negotiated. Discussions will be complex and I’m afraid quite tough. On the side of the Europeans (no matter what they say) the sentiment is also one of anger and payback. On the British side (no matter what they say) it is one of defiance and arrogance.
The two attitudes are wrong and dangerous. The British people arrived at a political decision via a referendum whose significance all participants were aware of. I am one of those who disagree that referenda are a worthwhile political tool, but no political force in the UK contested the legitimacy of the Brexit referendum. So, from a democratic perspective, the decision taken on its basis is a binding one. And Europeans are supposed to believe in democracy.
What now needs to be done is that while respecting the decision of the British people, but in the best interests of the peoples of continental Europe, civil, fair and transparent negotiations are held to cover the upcoming divorce, as well as the final settlement resulting from it.
From the information available as of now one can see that the UK is aiming to achieve the status of a Switzerland in the Atlantic. In what follows, we shall see whether what was possible twenty to ten years ago, is feasible today.
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Financial services
Operators in the field of financial services in Malta still fail to understand how the political mood in Europe is swinging against the turn that developments in this sector have taken.
Two factors will continue to define the situation: the belief, first, that financial services are being used to support an unending effort by rich people and big companies to avoid paying their taxes; and secondly, that the tax system of a number of countries (Malta included) are serving to create unfair competition when promoting new investment or attracting funds.
To all this, one response is required: an overriding commitment in favour of transparency. But with time, claims have pressed beyond this point. Transparency has morphed into a call that would lever the tax structure of all European countries into the same template. Such an approach creates problems for economies the size of Malta’s. These would go much deeper that the difficulties to be faced by the financial services sector.
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Conflicts of interest
True: in this country, the idea that we should guard against conflicts of interest in public affairs has weak recognition. As I see it, these conflicts – whether real or potential – as of now, clog the decisions that are taken, independently of which administration is running the show. In part, a reason for this is Malta’s minute dimension.
On the other hand, one could make the point: does this carelessness about conflicts of intereests exist only here?
Take the European Parliament. The person chosen to negotiate Brexit terms on its behalf is Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberal group and ex-Prime Minister of Belgium. He holds a number of private sector consultancies and he has not divulged which they are. Does this make sense? Of course not.