One point that Europeans have failed to agree upon as yet as they prepare their economic recovery programme is how funds should be extended – as loans or as grants?
On this one too there has been dissent between “north” and “south”. The former say loans, the latter say grants. Such disputes continue to splinter the skin of solidarity between EU memberstates, which anyway was never so thick. The countries which have been badly done by the pandemic do not want to get loaded with more debt to get the chance to recover. That is understandable.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Verhofstadt came up with an original way out. On the basis of the Union’s budget, the European Commission could issue a “perpetual” debenture, meaning there would be no date set for its redemption. Since the Commission is considered as a triple A institution financially, the interest rate it would be able to obtain on its loan instruments would be among the lowest. Year in year out it would pay this interest as an expense on its budget.
In the past, similar “perpetual” bonds issued by the British government, called consols, used to be very popular in Malta with the public. This time, it seems to me, Verhofstadt has come up with a good idea.
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AQUACULTURE
When Malta gets to implement its economic recovery programme, there is a sector which should not be forgotten – aquaculture, the fattening of fish in nets at sea, where for a while, in the Mediterranean, we were considered to be the pioneers.
In past years, some of our operators have suffered substantial reverses: partly because they did not pay sufficient attention to carrying out their work well within the framework of the international agreements which regulate the fishing and fattening of fish, especially tuna; partly because on the Malta government side there was administrative hanky panky going on; and partly because competitors, especially from Spain, plus the services of the European Commission manoeuvred to arrange the situation so that matters got loaded against Maltese operators.
The threat is that given the current economic crisis, Malta-based aquaculture could suffer more reverses. Our economic recovery plan needs to also take this problem into account.
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ABANDONED PROJECTS
During this life we live, we leave behind us a trail of abandoned projects, ranging from those that involve personal relationships, to others that deal with work or a career, to yet others that cover sport and entertainment among others.
This week I again realized how it happens as I sorted out and threw away old papers and files that no matter what one does, keep accumulating. I discovered an exercise book containing old handwriting of mine. There were some five chapters of a novel I had started to write, then stopped, and never finished.
What struck me most though was that I also found the draft for a plan showing how the novel would be developing, chapter by chapter to the end, as well as a list of all characters. I could not remember at all that I did ever have such complete indications set out and ready. And all this must have been done very long ago for the chapters and the outline plan were written in a handwriting that is hardly recognizable from what mine is today. Also: in the wake of this effort, I then never wrote a novel which followed a previously well determined outline plan, as was meant to to happen with the abandoned project.