I happen to be among those who share a high regard for the city of Brussels. Others are not so impressed.

If they compare its attractiveness to London or Paris, it’s obvious that it  cannot compete; but if they do the same vis à vis Strasbourg or Milan say, I disagree that it is left behind. As a location where one lives, not just visits for a short while, the city offers a substantial range of attractions and gives life to a pleasant urban environment, even though it is of medium size and is far from being some megalopolis.

In all this, I might have a conflict of interest perhaps because a long time ago, I lived for five years there and during the last ten years or almost, I was all the time going to and coming from it. Still, even if it gets called a monotonous place, I see it as able without brouhaha and excessive pomp, to lay out its own points of interest (which mostly remain civilised and varied in scope).

What can be better than that? – even if then the weather gets mentioned as the worst of  the Brussels downsides, since it is “always” grey.

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THE PRICE OF MILK

The price of milk is due to increase for a second time in quite a short while. This second rise, we have been told, is meant to help create sources of funds from which to finance new investment capital. If this is the case, the issue is more than just curious.

Capital investment is not mobilised overnight. It has to be planned beforehand over the long term for it needs time to take off and then more time till it gets done. The use of funds that an enterprise has at its disposal to launch and run an investment project needs well thought out planning. Equally, this covers the decisions that must be taken about the profits that have been obtained. What percentage of the profits is going to be distributed as dividends to shareholders? How much is going to be put aside as a reserve against crises that could emerge and for future investment?

It is in this context that the decision to increase the price of milk begs for clarification.

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THE ETS IMPACT

Much has been said and much will continue to be said about the impact of the ETS environmental tax being charged on maritime fuels. No doubt, this will adversely affect Malta and countries placed in a similar situation. But they did find themselves in a sticky position when the EU came to settle the matter.

It is not true that the Malta government lay supine in facing this problem or that it did nothing to resolve it. To the contrary. The same applies to the Maltese MEPs in the European Parliament. However, what I have always warned about... namely that somebody else would end up deciding for us about what to do because we would end up in an EU minority... did happen.

What still puzzles me in this story is how the private sector seems not to have apprehended that the issue had been looming for a long time, and only at the last minute did it notice. The sector was so vociferous in favour of Malta’s entry in the EU that I imagined it would continually keep itself updated about the arrangements, for the better and for the worse, that the EU would have arrived at.