The good of the country

It was John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, who gave an original twist to advice. In his inaugural speech in 1961 he recommended that Americans should no longer expect everything from the State. He advised that people should find out what they could do for the country rather than what the State could do for them.

The new year has great promises for us all, but it also provides serious obligations. Malta's formal entry into the European Union has great benefits in store for us, but also grave duties.

Our life may be hard but we walk by faith and live by hope. This is the destiny of life within the EU with a multitude of benefits. At the same time we have to abide by standards that are common to European countries but sadly missing or neglected by our people. For it is important to love our neighbours as we expect to be loved and respected by our fellow European members.

Political and social context

We must abide by the respect for laws and regulations of the other members of the EU. We cannot expect to profit as members without observing the norms and traditions of the Union. If we take the environment, for example, we really must put right what is so visibly and manifestly wrong. The unacceptable factors or elements in our environment are either man-made or caused as a fault by nature and we do not bother to put right.

Therefore we find in this one example the need to co-operate to be in line with European standards that are so much better than ours. We must realise that our mistakes, caused by negligence or lethargy, should be corrected at all costs. We must really be on our guard and determine to do what is right by raising our environment to good, acceptable, civilised and healthy, clean standards.

It is axiomatic that love and respect to be genuine must bring some suffering with it. Life that is hard can only be accepted with good grace by faith and hope.

These two virtues in life do not fall like manna from heaven. We must contribute by providing our share of respect and help to our neighbours. These are our own countrymen who collectively form the State. We must think and work for the good of our fellow countrymen just as we expect others to do the same to us.

Plan for the future

We all must have a plan for our future. Even though we do not know exactly what the future holds we must strive to meet the undesirable head on. We must work to put things right both for ourselves and for the good of the country. We have to find out how we can help the state to be a better one from every possible aspect. The very reason why our statesmen strove for membership of the Union was for the good of the people as a whole and therefore for the good of the country, meaning for the good of every one of us as well.

Clearly, EU membership is not going to provide miracles. The simple fact that on May 1 we become full members while retaining our own nationhood and nationality means a great change for the country. Even though the change does not show any immediate improvement in our lifestyles we can be sure that we will be better off in the not too distant future.

We must encounter our new-found brothers and sisters in openness and vulnerability. For even though we are not going to lose our identity as an independent nation, we must familiarise ourselves with living in a much wider horizon politically, socially, economically and morally.

Four Malta priorities

Aggornat, the weekly bulletin published by the Malta-EU Information Centre, lists the four priorities for the use of EU structural funds in Malta:

¤ strategic investments and the strengthening of competitiveness, such as the improvements in the environmental sector with a strong focus on water quality and waste disposal and support to small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing and tourism sectors;

¤ human resources development, such as the inclusion in the labour market of people with disability and developing lifelong learning;

¤ rural development and fisheries, including improvement in the processing and marketing of products, renewal and modernisation of the fishing fleet and supporting aquaculture and fishing port facilities; and

¤ special support to Gozo, such as the upgrading of transport infrastructure, supporting the tourism sector and upgrading education courses.