Putting out to sea

Five years ago, the country celebrated Independence in the middle of a heated debate about whether we were about to throw it all away - if Malta joined the European Union. Today, as we celebrate the last Independence anniversary before an important general election, the debate has moved on.

Our vigorous independence is endorsed by no less than the Malta Labour Party. For each time the Opposition states that a Labour government would press the EU much harder on irregular immigration, each time it says that its foreign policy would be much more proactive than the government's, it confirms just how much independent initiative Malta is still able to take.

Of course we might wonder about the MLP's judgement. It is not just that even major states like Spain and Italy have not been able to nudge the EU into proceeding at a faster pace on irregular immigration.

In 2003 we were being warned that EU membership might damage our relations with Arab countries. In 2007, however, Labour's Plan for a New Beginning states that EU membership would be to our advantage in setting up a business forum targeting the Arabian Gulf. Plus, we are told, there are important new opportunities for Malta in North Africa and Egypt. How could the party have missed all this in 2003?

Five years on, the membership debate is not just over; even some of the key metaphors have changed. In 2003, the pro-membership campaign spoke of foreign policy in terms of taking the ship, Malta, into safe harbour, the EU. Today, we speak of putting the ship out to sea, to sail in search of investment opportunities.

But it would be a mistake to assess our foreign policy in terms of interests alone. The very nature of Malta - its size, its political and economic exposure - give it an elective affinity to progressive foreign policy that embraces values like justice and solidarity.

Take the current concern with irregular immigration. One important cause is Africa's poverty - the fact that 12 per cent of the world's population accounts for less than one per cent of the world's exports; the fact that if sub-Saharan Africa today had the same share of world trade it had in 1980, its gain in income would be some eight times more than what the region currently receives in aid.

Malta has, if you like, a vested interest in a world that values the millennium development goals, that is willing to cooperate in multilateral ways to use soft power to alleviate poverty. Values and multilateralism are the two characteristics of a progressive foreign policy as identified by the contributors to a recent book with that name, edited by David Held and David Mepham (Polity).

Measured by their criteria, Malta's record since independence has not been bad at all. Its 1967 proposal, by the Borg Olivier government, to make the resources of the seabed a "common heritage of humanity" led, eventually, to the first international law addressing sustainable development; and it was the same government again that drew the UN's attention to the global consequences of aging societies. It was the Fenech Adami government that, in 1988, brought climate change to the attention of the UN.

The Gonzi government has had to steer Malta in a world where sustainable development, climate change and aging are affecting the tissue of everyday life, as are technology and innovation. It has responded with several kinds of initiative.

At the bilateral level, it has strengthened relations with Egypt and North Africa. It has signed some 10 double taxation agreements around the world. One of those, with Singapore, shows a growing attention to Asia, that emerges in other ways: The appointment of an ambassador to India; Chinese investment in a third mobile phone operator in Malta; and of course, SmartCity from Dubai.

It has hosted CHOGM - an event that had been obtained by the previous administration. But it was the Gonzi government that decided to use Malta's presidency of the Commonwealth to push electronic governance in Africa - not just a worthy goal, but one that gives a sub-Saharan African dimension to SmartCity, just as the establishment of EuroMedITI, a network aiming to promote technology and innovation, has the Euro-Med region in its sights.

Apart from the coordination with Malta Enterprise and the Ministry for IT and Investment, there has also been some coordination with the Ministry for the Environment: On the international front, Mepa has been involved in piloting and participating in coastal management projects, organised within the Mediterranean Action Plan, and which are important for the ecological security of the Mediterranean.

In addition, Malta has proposed to the European Commission how a networking arrangement might serve to enhance the sustainable development of the coastal regions of Europe in conjunction with third countries.

These various initiatives suggest that Malta's foreign policy since EU membership has been integrating commercial and ecological concerns, and addressing African development and Maltese economic development as challenges that go hand in hand.

At the same time, however, these various initiatives have yet to be pulled together tightly enough, so that then they can be pushed with greater force. They suggest a foreign policy that is contributing to an economic breakthrough, but which cannot as yet be summed up in a new narrative for Malta.

ranierfsadni@europe.com