Noel Formosa, mayor of San Lawrenz, on the new opportunities offered by EU programmes
Europe is an experience that each one of us shares and lives. Europe is as beautiful as we want it to be. Europe gives us a unique opportunity to show solidarity. By promoting diversity, EU projects are aimed at creating a forum where we feel at ease living next to others, notwithstanding their different cultures - because we are simply branches from one stem - Europe.
We are living at a time when reality shows are being aired by various European TV stations, including our own. Unfortunately these shows hide life's blunt realities and ridicule human indecision.
As I write this, I recall a very recent fantastic experience I lived through. Through the project Youth, my small locality of San Lawrenz witnessed how possible it is to create a new vision and new opportunities in Europe; how we are widening our horizons to the potential locked in our localities, regions and countries, bringing them out to the full daylight.
We are creating a frame of mind where our youth are encouraged to declare that besides being Maltese, Italians, Belgian or British, they are also Europeans! This is essentially what we are aiming to achieve - that our citizens feel they belong not just to a particular country, but also to one Europe, and truly feel and believe that they are Europeans. This is what a number of youth, including myself, who took part in this particular project felt - that we were the product of and heirs to one common identity.
The other side of the coin is globalisation - and its tendency to merge different identities into one that has no identity. This is threatening to erase our roots, our identity. Europe is not about having multinationals in every town and city. The greatness of Europe is that each corner of this continent has a story to tell, like common ingredients that each household simmers into an infinite variety of wholesome aromas. This is Europe's potential. This is our identity. And this identity has a high price tag.
However there is a real need for Europe to promote a more active sense of European citizenship. One cannot deny that much is being done in this regard, and in my opinion, in a very successful manner. However, much more needs to be done. In this field, local government has an extremely important role to play. Education is another important factor; not limited to academic instruction, but education in its widest sense, lived and experienced in peoples' daily tasks.
Let me speak from my local council's experience. We signed a twinning agreement last year, after five years during which we had sought the active participation of each member and from all sections of our society. Thanks to this, our twinning agreement is alive in both communities involved, and does not just exist on paper. Everybody truly feels they participating - all the social groups present in our village have had their share in the organisation. We especially involved our youth and children, as we truly believe that they are Europe's future.
A point one must consider is the involvement of our youngsters - however not in the way that the administrators want, but in the way it suits our youth! Our young people have to be our strategic partners! We need to make them truly understand and appreciate that our heritage, as handed down by our forefathers, is what gives us our identity and makes us what we are today, and we should be proud of it.
I feel that this is another way that we can expose our potential to new horizons, which many a time we hold back and are afraid to reveal. The European Commission provides a valid instrument to do this, which is known as Plan D - a plan that enables us to appreciate our identity more fully, and enhances democracy, dialogue and debate. It could well be that this document is primarily aimed at increasing citizens' awareness of how important it is to ratify the EU Constitution. However, we would be mistaken if we stopped at this. Plan D has to be a continuous guide to how the EU should do politics.
Permit me to state that a European citizen will not feel any more European simply with the adopting of the Constitution. It is only when Europe's values and heritage are embedded in one's daily life that this person will feel truly European.
Citizens in my locality became very conscious of their European identity not when the discussion revolved around Europe, but when they had the opportunity to share their daily lives and experiences with people of other cultures. Everyone realised that on this continent, life's problems are relatively the same. It is this that made them feel like they are members of one big European family.
What is my point? The idea I want to drive home is that we need to go back to our roots, to realise and appreciate our heritage. We need to rediscover what has formed our Europe. In my opinion these 'European values' are not being given their due importance. We are behaving as if we have this rich treasure that we just keep locked in a chest. I fully support a re-birth, a renaissance of European values.
Plan D places this responsibility on us, local politicians - we who are closest to our citizens. We have a duty to provide platforms that citizens feel confident to stand upon and voice their opinion. Moreover they have to feel reassured that their opinion is really being considered!
We have to go back to our grassroots - I believe that this can be achieved through exchanges, undertaken seriously, in which we discuss Europe's political role in a more interesting manner. European politicians and bureaucrats should participate more in similar exchanges, to get the real feel of how things are, taken from the view of the general public. The media should also participate more in such exchanges. Many times unfortunately, some excellent work goes by unnoticed and thus is not appreciated.
Another still under-utilised potential are the vast possibilities offered through information technology. This astonishing medium can bring us so much closer together and probably at lower cost. Once again, my village's twinning experience has taught me so.
First and foremost, during every exchange, we insisted that contact between the two communities, even on a personal basis, should keep taking place, primarily through e-mails, text messaging, chatting, and so forth. Secondly, such contact should take a larger community-wide scale.
This led us to periodically organise teleconferencing between the two communities, and let me say, with very positive results. Thanks to this virtual contact, our citizens were given the chance to discuss several 'hot issues' currently going on in Malta, such as Malta's adoption of the euro shortly, how it affected Italy, and what could be done to avert possible drawbacks.
In this light I wish to propose that the EU considers seriously supporting such means of communication. The EU has to consider that not everybody can wholly finance the expenses involved in teleconferencing. Through IT, citizens will surely feel that they can participate in EU affairs more fully.
My final words are directed in favour of a Europe open to new concepts and ideas. Moreover, Europe has to get closer to its citizens. Though steeped in history, Europe needs to be kept young and energetic through programmes and opportunities that really leave the desired impact.
My sincere appeal is that this should not be done at the expense of the values that have characterised and distinguished the European continent for over two centuries. I am referring principally to the Christian values that unfortunately were denied even a mere mention in the European Constitution.
Education and innovation have always to be at the forefront. The enlarged Europe has to have the adequate tools to unlock the potential that each individual has, be it in the remotest village or the most insular island!
Europe's greatest potential lies in the uniqueness of each European citizen. By providing our vast millions of inhabitants with a wide range of opportunities to cater for their needs, each citizen will surely feel that they belong to one united Europe.
Let us preserve and truly appreciate our European identity. Let us get to the very heart of our society through exchanges and similar initiatives. All European citizens should be proud of whom they are, and the historical heritage they have inherited, and must feel responsible to pass on this heritage.
Let us not isolate ourselves within our country's borders like an oyster, but widen and nourish our European principles and values. This can only be achieved through open dialogue, and by instilling a stronger democracy in our Europe.