Consistency for unity

I read John Attard Montalto's speech in parliament where he appealed for unity within the Malta Labour Party over its EU policy.

Once again the Labour speaker referred to "respecting the people's verdict" as being the main argument which justifies the right-about-turn which Labour is doing on its pre-election EU policy.

No one is saying that the opposition should just "promise to withdraw Malta from the EU", if EU membership turns out to be a success - a highly unlikely event as things are already turning out. Politicians on their own cannot take Malta out of the EU - be they Alfred Sant, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici or anyone else. Only the majority of the people can do that if, after experiencing EU membership for a number of years, they realise they have been led to take the wrong decision.

But even then, in order to be able to take Malta out of the EU while still maintaining a close relationship with the EU - as envisaged in the new EU constitution being negotiated at the IGC in Rome - the Maltese people must be given the chance to express their opinion once again. Just as they were asked on March 8.

May I remind Dr Attard Montalto how he and his Labour colleagues used to argue publicly in parliament and during other public manifestations (I am now very doubtful if a few of them were not arguing differently in private!) that foreign investment would not come to Malta if our country joins the EU. The reason being the fact that our regulations, incentives etc. would be similar to those existing in other EU states, particularly the poor East European ones, where the cost of production was much lower than ours. And, hence, they were much more competitive than us.

Surely no more uncertainty can be created if Malta is ever free again from the clutches of the EU than being integrated in an institution or superstate, where one never knows what other new regulations, directives etc. would be churned out of the EU's bureaucratic machine tomorrow or the day after. And which could affect your business in a radical way while your own government will have no real power to change anything in those EU regulations!

When Dr Attard Montalto was Labour minister he was in a position to act quickly and take the necessary measures to remedy critical situations in industry. In fact, he could do and did just that - much to his credit. If he were to be a minister again while Malta is an EU member, he could easily find out that he may not be allowed to take similar action and thus save jobs as he did between 1996 and 1998.

This is why I can never agree with him and his colleagues that Malta should remain in the EU whatever the consequences. If he agrees with me on this, then he and his colleagues should not be afraid to say so. And write it down in that document which will be presented to party delegates in November.

As most of what has been written by my friend Desmond Zammit Marmara (October 14) had been said by Dr John Attard Montalto, I wish to refer my friend to my (above) reply to Dr John Attard Montalto's article.

The only thing I wish to add is to ask your correspondent not to keep repeating the excuse invented by the "new" Labour leadership that when approving the January 2001 motion - when the accession treaty negotiated by the PN government had not existed as yet - party delegates were at the same time giving their approval to a radical change in the party's policy vis-a-vis EU membership.