Malta requires leadership

Europe's largest enlargement which took place on May 1 is the result of a series of progressive steps and meetings starting in 1993 when EU leaders set the famous Copenhagen criteria. These outlined the democratic, political and market economy requirements for membership of the EU.

At the beginning it was a two-tier process with half the countries in a fast group, the Luxembourg group, and half in a slower group, the Helsinki group.

Following a change in government in 1998 Malta just about made it to the Helsinki group partly thanks to the fact that the Labour government had not withdrawn the membership application but had simply suspended it. Had the Labour government withdrawn the application altogether Malta would most probably have missed this enlargement since the process of submitting a new application would have been too complex. It would have also required consensus among the 15 member states, some of which were diplomatically expressing irritation at Malta's switch on-switch-off approach to European policy.

The European Commission, while handling the negotiations with the applicant countries, was supervising the process of implementing the administrative structures in all countries to allow them to introduce the rules and regulations of the acquis in many different sectors particularly those related to the single market.

During this period I was employed as an economist with the European Commission and worked for the European Union delegation to Malta. It was a privilege to work under the guidance of Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission who I believe deserves a lot of credit for putting EU enlargement as a central target of the Commission when he became President in 1999. This work allowed me to go into the detail of all the chapters in the negotiations particularly from an economic perspective.

By 2001, the European Commission was able to announce that 10 countries were ready to join the EU and the negotiations were completed at the end of 2002 with the important Copenhagen Summit in December where enlargement from 15 to 25 member states was given the go-ahead.

A lot of bartering took place at that summit. The Maltese government, for example, withdrew its request for six seats in the European parliament in exchange for a protocol on abortion and a unilateral declaration on neutrality.

The protocol on abortion was an unnecessary bonus because the European Union was never going to force Malta to legislate in favour of abortion. The type of declaration on neutrality signed by Malta has no legal value and did not bind the EU in any way. Therefore, as things stand, the EU will expect Malta to participate fully in future European integration in the fields of foreign policy, security and defence despite the potential risks for such a small nation state.

Why was the government so keen on signing a binding agreement with the EU about abortion but not about Malta's future security requirements? The government of Malta should use its diplomatic resources to safeguard Malta's neutrality with a view to ensuring that Malta's national interest will in future not clash with that of other member states in the EU.

We must all collaborate to ensure that Malta's interests correspond to those of other European states particularly in light of the fact that the EU will continue to evolve its common foreign and security policy into something more concrete. It is not enough to say that Malta, like other member states, retains the right of veto in this field. It is much wiser for Malta to reach an agreement through diplomatic channels instead of threatening to use a veto that would have negative political and economic consequences for the island.

Malta's security is linked to our economic development. Our country requires leadership that can formulate national strategies to encourage economic growth with a view to fulfilling the economic obligations of accession while creating employment opportunities in Malta. The success of Malta's membership of the EU will be measured against the performance of Malta's economy, job creation and security. According to current indications the government is not able to properly handle the responsibilities related to Malta's membership of the EU.

The Nationalist Party should concentrate on these important tasks related to the future challenges and opportunities for Malta as an EU member state instead of wasting its energy questioning the Malta Labour Party's commitment to Europe.

Mr Micallef will be contesting the European parliament elections on a Malta Labour Party ticket.