Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world as a whole. We thought that the world had seen the last of such incursions, while many are rightly concerned about this war spilling over to the rest of Europe, even more so when Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities close to the borders of the European Union. This apart from the fact that Russia has disregarded Ukraine's territorial integrity by launching an unprovoked attack that will lead to the loss of thousands of lives. Millions of Ukrainian citizens have already left their country, seeking safety in EU countries, including ours.

In order to show support towards Ukraine and condemn Russia’s invasion, without escalating the rift between Russia and the West, as a European Union, we have seen imposed various economic sanctions on Russia. Amongst other things, Russian banks have been excluded from the SWIFT payment mechanism, while sanctions have also been imposed on individuals close to the Russian leadership and imports of Russian energy. As Members of the European Parliament, we also had a special plenary where we debated and voted upon these sanctions.

Naturally, imposing such sanctions was the right and most logical thing to do in the current circumstances. However, we would be wrong to assume that these sanctions will not impact us at all. On the contrary, certain sanctions can hurt Europe just as much as they can hurt Russia. In the energy sector, for example, we were already experiencing a spike in oil prices internationally, and energy prices are expected to continue rising now that Russia has been taken out of the market in this regard. Within itself, this is expected to result in more European citizens struggling to afford their bills, an aspect which we need to address.  Indeed, within the recent months I have emphasised more than once within the Parliament that the EU must ensure a steady supply of affordable energy for all its citizens and business, especially the most vulnerable ones.

When push came to shove, the Maltese Government led by example in this regard. Instead of burdening its citizens with higher bills, the government absorbed the increase in prices itself. Further to this, the Labour Government also gave out stimulus cheques and tax refunds in order to stimulate the economy in times of uncertainty. As we all know, uncertain times lead to less stability, and less stability leads to less growth and investment. Thanks to the current government, however, stability has been ensured in our economic sector, and this is something that we should not be taking for granted.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has already made it clear where he stands when it comes to economic investment. If the people of this country choose the Labour Party once more, we shall also be ensuring that amongst other things: We reduce the corporate tax by 10%; the provision of free energy audits for SMEs and Micro-enterprises; the renewal of the Smart and Sustainability Scheme;  interest-free loans to companies investing in electric cars; and also the removal of tax on interest derived from Green bonds.
This shall all be done without any ifs or buts, contrary to proposals pushed forward by the Nationalist Party, attaching the reduction of tax to ESG standards and reporting. Whilst the Labour Party is ready to help Maltese businesses’ transition towards ESG reporting, at a time when ESG standards apply to large businesses only, we are not going to be the ones that force SMEs to jump the gun. On the contrary, we want our SMEs to take their time to recover from the devastation brought about by the pandemic. We want them to re-invest their profits, and to pay their employees better wages so that everyone will benefit from this investment. In turn, we expect the Maltese economy to continue growing at a very fast pace, a concept that has become synonymous with the Labour Party’s time in government.

As Maltese and Gozitans we only have one thing to ask ourselves: Do we want a government that is tried and tested when it is challenged with global crises? Or do we want a party with a half-baked manifesto that wants to burden the business community, rather than to shoulder the responsibility themselves? As things stand, the choice is more than clear, and for this reason, I encourage everyone to vote for all of the candidates of the Labour Party on the 26th of March.

Josianne Cutajar is a Member of the European Parliament