How MIC 'colours' its information

Reading through the latest MIC booklet Question & Answer (No. 5) I came across the following question (No. 18): "Does MIC speak about the negative aspects of EU membership?"

MIC's reply began with the words: "The role of the Malta-EU Information Centre (MIC) is to provide information that is simple to understand. It is not MIC's role to 'colour' it with positive or negative tones".

Besides the above, we often hear MIC's head say that MIC does not get involved in "political" controversies, it just gives "EU information". Well, on finishing reading MIC's latest booklet I found out that this is not exactly what MIC is doing! For example: while 24 out of 25 points raised were questions, point No. 25 was a statement which has nothing to do with "EU information" at all!

The statement I refer to read: "I think that 16-year-olds should vote in the EU referendum because it is young people, more than anyone else, who will be affected by EU membership...".

MIC's comment to this statement was that "clearly, the EU does not get into this or even whether we hold a referendum at all..." So why did MIC include the above statement on "16-year-olds should vote in the EU referendum" when this is a purely local political matter? After all, in which EU state have 16-year-olds been allowed to vote in a referendum? MIC failed to give an answer to this question!

Again, to the question (No. 8): "Will Malta benefit from EU funds?" MIC wrote: "Latest EU statistics show that Malta's current level (GDP) stands at 54% of the EU average. This means that under current (note well the word "current"!) criteria Malta would qualify for both these funds (cohesion and ERDF funds)".

What is much more important for us to know has been left out of MIC's reply! First. That today Malta is not a member of the EU so the present EU average GDP is irrelevant since Malta cannot have access to those funds. Malta can only become a EU member in 2004 at the earliest. In 2004 not only Malta but also the poor East European candidate countries could become EU member states. When that happens the "average" GDP in the EU will go down drastically to a level where Malta's GDP will be above the new EU "average". Hence Malta will no longer qualify for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) although it might still qualify for the Cohesion Fund!

All this was contained in the report - which MIC had never mentioned when it was published in July 2001 - drawn up by the Economic and Social Committee of the EU. Clause 4.1.1. of the Appendices to that report states: "Maltese GDP in Purchasing Power Parities (PPP) is 52% of the EU average. At present (note well the word "present"!) this would qualify Malta for Objective 1 status under the Structural Fund rules but this level is one of the highest in the candidate countries and the entry of other nations with much lower GDPs could conceivably bring the EU average down to the point where Malta would no longer qualify in the long term (my italics).

"This is an issue which the Maltese government is following closely in the context of the unfolding debate on regional funding in a post-enlargement scenario, which was launched by the Spanish government".

The same MIC tactic was used in question No. 9: "What is the euro? And how will it affect Malta?" While informing us that "the euro will create price transparency..." and also that "the euro also reduces costs formerly incurred from exchange of foreign currency and currency fluctuations", etc., MIC said nothing about the fact that giving up our national currency - the lira - would mean giving up our own control on the exchange rate of our currency and the interest rate, two vital economic tools used to control inflation and the competitiveness of our manufacturing and tourism, etc.!

To question No. 23: "Will the EU regulate our income tax?", MIC replied with an emphatic "No! the EU has no laws regarding income tax....". But it did not add that "tax harmonistion" has been and still is being discussed and pushed in the various EU fora, including the VAT rate, which in most countries is higher than that in Malta!

Neither was it mentioned that the EU exerts political pressure on member states - such as it did on Ireland when this country wanted to lower the rate of income tax! Can MIC guarantee that even on income tax and VAT, etc. there will always remain unanimity, as has happened to so many other areas of competence which previously were decided by unanimity but are now subject to qualified majority voting?

MIC - for the first time if I recall correctly - thought it had enough authority to pronounce itself on a matter considered to be taboo in the EU. I am referring to question 25: "Can a country withdraw from EU membership?" MIC's reply was in the sense that "under international law, just as a country may sign a treaty it can also renounce it. So legally, a country can indeed withdraw from membership. Whether it should do so for both political and economic reasons is, however, another matter."

If this were true, how will MIC explain that whenever a proposal was made to the EU to include in its treaty a clause which gives the right to each member state, to withdraw its membership, the EU has always refused giving as a reason that when a country joins the EU, it is assumed that its accession was to be of a permanent nature?

Also, why did Romano Prodi tell us to "think very carefully before deciding because membership was like an indissoluble marriage"? Even if technically speaking, withdrawal was "legally" possible under international law, the EU could still make it impossible through the conditions it may impose.

I could go on and on pointing out what MIC has conveniently, and very cunningly, left out of its Question & Answer booklet.

This is why I always insist that when it resorts to such tactics, MIC would not be truly "informing" but rather misinforming our people.

I repeat again today - when MIC does not give all the information, the "EU information" it becomes EU propaganda! Is this not the same as colouring the information with "positive" tones while leaving the "negative tones" aside?!