Who dares wins

Labour officially declared that, when elected to government, it will "continue in following the declaration and the report of the EU Commission" on the introduction of the euro and that the "primary national interest is stability and not partisan interests primarily so because of the social and economic challenges which the country faces against the backdrop of globalisation and international commercial competitiveness".

And that's it!

As for the rest, Labour spokesman Charles Mangion repeated a sorry tale of woe and gnashing of teeth with regard to the state of our economy.

Labour's position is equivalent to a doctor who instead of convincing the patient that entry to euro is an important step in the long and difficult task of restructuring the economy's health, decides to convince the patient that he is still very sick despite the cure to be administered!

Not only! This sceptic doctor also seems to want to demoralise the patient in the face of some possible social side effects.

Could it, therefore, mean that the doctor does not really believe in the cure to be administered?

It is significant that Labour at first took the position that the very same long tale of economic woe was too sorry for Malta to enter the eurozone!

When will Labour grow out of their current cold, non-committal, not to say reluctant position on the EU? I say reluctant because the first "knee-jerk" reaction on the major EU issues of the day tend to be quite euro-sceptic, only to be diluted at a later stage when the issues come to the crunch.

And diluted they remain.

What a reluctant, half-hearted, and, yes, contradictory endorsement by Labour on one of the most important events in the history of our economy!

Why on earth does Labour believe the Maltese voted yes at both the referendum and at the general election? Could it not perhaps be that the Maltese electorate dared believe in the single European Market as the means through which we could solve structurally the problems facing our economy since Independence?

Or that we dared believe we could face "globalisation and international commercial competitiveness" better within the EU than outside?

Did not the majority of the Maltese dare believe that we could compete, survive and, why not, prosper through our membership of the European Union? And perhaps did not the majority of us dare believe that barely three years from accession we would successfully prepare our economy to enter into the euro zone?

All this, therefore, begs the important question: Do they believe or do they not believe that entering into the eurozone, independently of who is to govern Malta for the next 20 years, is a positive and important step forward in solving the needs of the economy and worth working for? If they do believe so, why did they not state it clearly and unequivocally?

Now is the time for Labour to do so, when the parties are preparing their electoral manifestos. We cannot afford any doubts on Labour's true intentions on such delicate issues. We cannot have a throwback to the equivocation of Labour on the EU referendum result where, even very recently, the Labour leadership confirmed that to them the no vote won the referendum.

Previous Nationalist governments dared and won where EU membership was concerned.

Lawrence Gonzi's government has not only continued the process of integration but has also dared in reaching the important result of entering the eurozone, thereby setting the political, social and economic agenda for Malta that goes well beyond the next five years.

Labour too must dare on the side of clarity of purpose if it really intends to be credible at the general election.