The news that the European Commission is asking the "low-fares" airline Ryanair to pay up to €7 million for allegedly receiving state aid from the local government of the Belgian town of Charleroi, in the form of very low landing and ground-handling charges, as well as subsidies for its marketing, confirms yet again the insensitivity of the European Union to particular circumstances, such as in the case of very high unemployment in some EU member state or region.

The town of Charleroi, with a population similar to Malta, 400,000 people, has an unemployment rate topping 20 per cent (where were the "EU opportunities" for these people?). In order to try and tackle this enormous problem, the local government of Charleroi tried and succeeded in convincing Ryanair to start using Charleroi airport by offering it the above-mentioned attractive package as an incentive. Ryanair accepted and started using Charleroi airport as its European "hub". This resulted in creating around 700 new jobs at Charleroi airport to the 200 jobs already existing there. Plus another 2,600 indirect jobs due to the huge activity by Ryanair at Charleroi airport. From around 60,000 passengers a year, Charleroi airport is now handling around two million passengers!

To the European Commission, the "dogma" of competition is much more important than the widespread misery which a high rate of unemployment may create in a particular member state or region.

We in Malta are already feeling the negative effects of this "dogma" called "competition rules" when the PN government is already unable to provide various forms of state aid to help existing companies to continue to operate in Malta as well as various incentives to attract foreign investment and, thus, create new jobs which would alleviate the present unemployment problem.

Will any Maltese MP stand up in parliament and rap the EU about its insensitivity, besides participating in street protests?