British MEP and Eurosceptic Nigel Farage yesterday painted a dismal picture of the European Union and warned that membership would mean the "recolonisation" of Malta.
"Recolonisation will not happen with aircraft, gunboats and troops. For the time being you are becoming the victims of a carrot and stick policy," Mr Farage said.
He compared the carrot to the pre-accession funding which the EU was promising, "knowing full well its uncertain future financial situation".
At the same time, the stick epitomised the tough negotiating stance adopted by the EU with Malta. One of the examples is the EU`s reluctance to grant Malta a zero-rated VAT rate on food and medicinals like the UK and Ireland.
Mr Farage, a UK Independence Party MEP, is in Malta as a member of the EU-Malta Joint Parliamentary Committee delegation.
He gave a news conference at the anti-membership Campaign for National Independence headquarters in Mosta.
Mr Farage urged the Maltese to read between the lines when the commission said Malta`s membership was important for the future of Europe.
"Empires like to grow. And enlargement is on top of (EU president) Romano Prodi`s agenda," he said.
He expressed doubts on the future of national general elections, saying that these would become less important with EU membership.
This was evident by the less than 60 per cent voter turnout in the last UK elections as more people realised that voting does not change anything in their country.
Mr Farage claimed that those who opposed the EU were being forced to resort to two options - civil disobedience, or vote for political extremes, as evidenced by far right leader Jean Marie Le Pen`s first round success in the French presidential election.
He urged the Maltese to look to countries like Mexico, Switzerland and Norway to realise that non-membership could also mean the possibility of free trade by signing simple bilateral agreements.
The British MEP claimed there was a massive gap in EU opinion between the political class and ordinary people in member and applicant countries.
When it was pointed out that the latest Eurobarometer survey showed that, with the exception of Malta, the vast majority of the electorate favoured membership, Mr Farage said this was because most of the applicant countries thought their country would get a lot of funds from the Common Agricultural Policy, which he said was unlikely.
He urged people to realise that the streamlining of policies was unsuitable for several countries.
"The `one size fits all` policy adopted across Europe doesn`t work. I am not anti-European but I don`t want to snuff out individual cultures."