During the first half of this year, now coming to a close, Malta performed very well in the Presidency of the EU Council. It was a complex assignment that many believed would be outside the government’s ability to manage given the island’s small size.

The preparations undertaken to ensure that the emerging obligations would be well met were meticulous and serious from beginning to end. The results were clear. Even in areas where Malta has minimal experience or with which it has no familiarity, technical competence was displayed in dealing with issues.

Right from the start, I considered that this was an exercise over which the country needed to show competence but that success would not be held to our credit later; it would be forgotten by all. By contrast, failure would turn into a difficult burden for the future. So it remained imperative to reach for success. That’s what the Malta government did.

Even if the remembrance of such success soon got blurred, the record merits a further mention. At top of the list, so does the performance of scores of diplomats, bureaucrats and technical experts from Malta, many of them young people, who were well prepared and confident when dealing with the items that came up for discussion.  

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Crane

 I was one of those who without any reservations, praised the arrival in Malta of the Crane company and its project to invest in a new factory here that would produce paper currencies.

Since we joined the EU, as I had forecasted would happen, local industry has had a beating; it declined by close to fifty per cent. That an investment like Crane’s had been secured was a more than desirable outcome. Obviously, this could only have happened if the government had offered the American company advantageous terms.

However the news that the Crane company has now been sold to another corporation inevitably gives rise to reservations. Not because of the sale itself, as much as because of the explanation given for it – one that has not been denied. We have been told that the sale was so attractive to the company that took Crane over because the deal the latter had finalised in Malta, actually drove its real value to a much higher level than that shown in its audited financial accounts.

What is going on? In order to promote new industries in Malta as a member of the EU, shall we need to extend “subsidies” to foreign investment that are way too high?

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Catalonia again

In Catalonia, the citizens have voted. Their decision is their decision. A majority expressed a view in favour of the region’s independence. From outside, though I cannot see this as a correct decision, I agree that the will of the people as democratically set out, must be respected.

One can only conclude that the tactics followed by Prime Minister Rajoy and his Popular Party have been hugely discredited. A radical change needs to occur in the approach adopted by the Spanish government.

My understanding too is that the position taken by the EU is not sustainable. On the one hand, the Union preaches in favour of “European” values that include the rule of law and the freedom of peoples to decide how they want to be governed. On the other hand, when expedient, it hides behind legalistic excuses to ignore the wish that citizens have expressed.