I find it curious that as of now, there are still so many people who seem like they’re still living in a bubble surrounding the events that led to this year’s general elections. All you need do is read their diatribes (some penned by the same writers using different noms de plume) in the social media or in the space that on-line papers set aside for readers’ comments.

At times, I suspect that the strongest engine powering their behaviour still is deep grief about their party’s election defeat. For it’s the case that in their great majority, these people are PN supporters; even if  on the other hand, there’s no lack of Labour diehards out to give them tough replicas, as if they too are still caught in last spring’s scenarios.

Actually, life goes on and nobody can make it freeze. Yet, this curious behaviour is continuing to reflect a perspective that became evident as of 2013. Some elites, who thought they had a divine right to access power and the privileges of being in government, are now feeling doubly dispossessed. What they considered to be theirs as a natural birthright, has been denied them not just once, but twice and in a humiliating matter. They are falling back on the remedy by which they pretend the political situation has remained like it was last June, on the eve of the elections. 

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Non performing

In the advance towards banking union in the EU, a difficult hurdle has been what to do with non-performing loans (NPLs) that banks carry: loan conditions are not being satisfied, like for interest dues, capital repayments and so on; but banks still keep these loans on their books.

Right from the start, the problem was that if these NPLs were rubbed out of banks’ balance sheets, some banks – among which top names – would soon have capsized. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that at the same time, banks were having to satisfy additional financial obligations prescribed by new European rules designed to safeguard banks’ position over the long term.

A method had been agreed by which banks could offload NPLs by installments. That process is taking too long.

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As ever

The more time that lately I’ve been spending in Brussels, the more I realize how the “old” European rules are still in place.

In a gathering where “big” and “small” players assemble, and where all the time the need for total observance is proclaimed of the highest principles and values, two rules apply.

When the “big” players have according to the general view, for their own sweet reasons, stretched hard or even gone against these same principles, a great prudence must come into play.

By contrast, if influential minorities so opine, even when they rely on questionable allegations deriving from political convenience, if one of the “small” players appears to have undermined some principle or other, then tempests become the order of the day. A fervour of European holiness takes the form and rhythm of a crusade. Investigations and warnings proliferate.

It is strange how some Maltese consider this arrangement to be useful.