Editorial

It is quite understandable on the part of the Nationalist Party to feel so upbeat following the European Commission's report giving the green light to the island to join the eurozone as from the beginning of next year. Meeting the Maastricht criteria in so short a time is no mean feat, one reason perhaps why Labour sound so sour in their comments on the Commission's report and on the implications of what the currency changeover will mean for Malta.

Had Labour had its way, Malta would have still been lingering in the limbo of the "partnership" the party had in mind of negotiating with the EU. But the people were far more astute than Labour and gave the thumbs down to their proposal, not once but twice.

Few, except the CNI and a core of Labour diehards still unconvinced by the greatest U-turn in the party's political history, can ever imagine the possibility now of turning the clock back. The natural progression to the adoption of the euro after membership has seen the island gradually, but firmly, consolidating and even expanding its cohesiveness with the EU. True, the island may not have been as thoroughly prepared as many would have expected, and in this respect the party in government might have wrongly given the impression that the benefits of membership were bound to make an impact in no time. But if the Nationalists were at fault in this, as indeed they were, their fault was not one of deception but of over-enthusiasm as to the importance of the European project for Malta. Labour's campaign against membership had to be resisted at all cost, and on this, time has proved the Nationalists right, as the situation is showing today.

When the electorate showed in no uncertain manner that they preferred the membership proposal to the partnership idea, Labour had no reasonable political alternative other than changing course. It has done so grudgingly, as could well be seen in the way certain comments are made; but at least they have now moved on. Their problem now is to persuade their supporters to forget about their "partnership" proposal and think of Malta in its new status as a member of an important world bloc.

Contrary to all that Labour had preached before membership, the country did after all manage to bring about an improvement in the government's finances and help boost, through its policies, economic growth, as shown by the rise in gross domestic product. A technical convergence report, issued by the European Commission, says that "Malta has achieved a high degree of sustainable economic convergence with the euro area member states" and "fulfils the necessary conditions to adopt the euro".

It is politically understandable for Labour to downplay the achievements of a party in government but in doing this it has to be extra careful not to harm the country's interests, as it did when it cast doubts on official statistics. As it happens, Labour's doubts were proved wrong when the European Commission's statistical agency and others confirmed the reliability of the data.

The way to EU membership and, now, to the changeover to the euro has been paved with a lot of difficulties, but the exercise is paying off. Only a few days ago, the European Commission approved Malta's proposals on how to spend the €855 million the EU has allocated to our country for the coming seven years. It is a figure not to be sniffed at by any standard, more so by Labour's!