Editorial

It comes as no surprise at all that the Students' University Council has formally declared itself in favour of Malta joining the European Union in the next enlargement. Judging by the occasional vox pop on campus, university students do not generally show deep interest in national affairs but a recent survey by the KSU on Malta and the EU shows that the students are not completely cut off from the mainstream of Maltese society.

If anything, students, particularly university students, ought to be among those in the vanguard of new thinking and of new moves aimed at taking the country to new levels of social and economic development. How can university students not be interested in the government's proposal to see Malta become part of a united Europe?

The political dimension of the idea itself is so profound in the context of how Europe has evolved over the centuries that it ought to fill every student with excitement over what is happening at this point in time in our own continent.

The students of today are the workers of tomorrow, the people who would have to take over from today's generation and help propel the island to new heights in its development.

The 62.5 per cent of the students who, according to the KSU survey, have shown they are in favour of EU membership, must be fully aware of what membership means, not only in terms of what the island can gain now but also in terms of how membership will shape their own future.

Students are not likely to be duped all that easily by Labour's insubstantial arguments, and will certainly not be impressed by their doom and gloom, much less by their scaremongering.

In the announcement of its stand, the KSU said it noted "the great opportunities that the EU shall bring to students and young people locally, most notably by facilitating their mobility for purposes of research, study and work, but also by enhancing competition and providing a greater choice to the consumer".

Students were already benefiting from the EU's educational programmes and would benefit even further as a result of membership. But apart from these tangible benefits, there are wider aspects that the students would have to keep in mind when they come to cast their vote in the referendum.

Those who are already convinced of the overall benefits of membership ought to make it their mission now to try and win the other students to their side through the force of argument.

As the backbone of tomorrow's Malta, the students share in society's aspirations for an improved living standard and a higher quality of life, to be enjoyed in a Europe without frontiers, walls or iron curtains. Today's students are most fortunate in that they are living in what are most definitely the most exciting times since Malta won its independence from Britain in 1964.

The same courage the people showed in facing up to the challenges independence brought about over the years will see the island through again in this historic development which we are being called upon to share with other countries on the threshold of membership.

Malta's students will not turn their backs to the next logical step in the island's development. It is, after all, their Malta too. The young of today should be the island's standard bearers of progress.