The advantages of European Union membership were already being felt by small enterprises, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
In fact, he said, a few days after accession, small business owners were already commenting about the positive impact.
Dr Gonzi said a number of bureaucratic procedures, which needed to be dealt with previously, had now come to an end, making small business owners' lives easier, while value added tax was no longer paid by the businessmen as soon as a product was imported, but when it was sold, if the product was imported from an EU country.
"This means that businessmen have a bigger cash flow, which they can use to expand," he said.
Speaking during a public discussion at the party's club in Paola, the Prime Minister said that while this was very good for businessmen, it had a less positive impact on the government, since it was getting its VAT revenue later. Dr Gonzi said the receipts from VAT amounted to around Lm15 million, but added that this had been budgeted for.
Dr Gonzi said a new Europe was born on May 1, and he described this as "wonderful". He said Malta took the place it had fought for for a long time, and was being treated in the same way as the 24 other member countries.
The Prime Minister said Maltese representatives would be present when the EU's next budget was discussed. He stressed the importance of the Maltese MEP on the committee discussing the budget to be a member of the European People's Party (EPP), the largest party within the EP, which was more likely to support Malta's requests.
He also asked where the Labour Party supporters were while the rest of Europe was celebrating enlargement. He said it seemed that even in its notices about next month's elections, Europe did not exist, since there was no reference to the EU in the party's billboards.
PN general secretary Joe Saliba also criticised the MLP billboards. He said the billboards say Ghazel Labour (Choose Labour), but the Maltese should not choose between the MLP or PN but the best candidates who were credible, consistent and had believed in the EU cause from the beginning.
Mr Saliba said the people's votes on June 12 would decide how the country would move forward.
Parliamentary secretary Tonio Fenech spoke about his experience within the European Parliament. He said MEPs were very involved in whatever was happening within the parliament.
"Everyone should work so that Malta has a strong influence in the European Parliament," he said, and added that the EPP, to which the elected Nationalist Party candidates would be affiliated, always had the strongest influence within the parliament.
Mr Fenech said some people were saying that the PN candidates would start feeling uncomfortable within the EP, and asked how the MLP candidates would feel, considering that they were previously against membership.