EU membership: choice, challenges and change

Membership of the European Union has opened a new phase in Malta's modern history. It was a choice that widened the country's horizons and opportunities.

We formally strengthened our ties to Europe because the Maltese economy stood to benefit from this choice. Over and above that, as Europeans and European citizens, our natural and common home is the EU.

Both in the period leading to accession, as well as post-May 2004, the government and society at large had to adapt to the requirements of European legislation. It required significant effort, the benefits of which I believe Malta has already started to enjoy. In short, Malta had to change and adapt. But it was not a change just for the sake of change.

More often than not, European institutions are caricatured as bureaucratic monsters churning up burdensome legislation for the sake of it. Imperfect as it may be, European legislation is not dreamt up in some obscure windowless laboratory. It is the result of analysis, experience, dialogue, necessity. Two different but poignant examples illustrate the point.

The European Commission did not just dream up the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs. Achieving both an investment of three per cent of Europe's GDP in research and development and an employment rate of 70 per cent by 2010 is not an exercise in vanity.

It is simply essential for re-launching competitiveness and sustainability. Subscribing to these goals requires effort and sacrifice. Achieving these goals will result in sounder and stronger economies, with more and better jobs to boot.

To take a subject closer to my own responsibilities, when the Commission regulates bluefin tuna fisheries in the Mediterranean, it does not do so capriciously.

A tuna recovery plan and stringent controls are the result of declining stocks combined with a catching overcapacity. It is in the interest of everybody that the rules are adhered to. If there are no fish left to catch, gone are the livelihoods of our fishermen, and gone is a precious resource, a sad, costly and permanent loss of biodiversity.

Malta's membership of the EU has been, in more ways than one, a revolution - albeit a measured revolution. In the space of four years, Malta has successfully faced up to its challenges.

Membership of the euro and Schengen are today a visible reality. Adopting the euro was not just changing a currency. It was essentially the result of a rigorous monetary and fiscal policy and the reigning in of government finances.

Once more this is not an exercise undertaken simply to achieve fiscal rigour for its own sake, but it is rather a tool to ensure the stability of an economy that is able to sustain the well-being of its citizens into the future.

As for the actual changeover, it has been simply exemplary. Added to this, today, a borderless Europe is a reality for all Maltese travellers. What is this if not a real expression of freedom?

As a net recipient of EU funds, Malta has benefitted from European support and assistance that have already helped us develop essential infrastructural projects. In the coming years, when the flow of funds and projects is set in full motion, the tangible benefits should continue shaping our daily lives for the better.

Our relations with Europe have been tried and tested over many issues. To mention but a couple, last year, when hundreds of textile workers found themselves jobless overnight, Malta had the opportunity to resort to funds from another concrete expression of European solidarity - the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund.

Then there is the phenomenon of illegal immigration. I consider the resulting strain among Maltese society as the most worrying aspect of this issue. On an operational level, and notwithstanding the many difficulties encountered, I believe that Europe's institutions have responded to Malta's legitimate and real concerns.

Beyond these matters, I firmly believe that Europe has had a profound effect on Malta and the Maltese. We have proved to one and all that we are not only able to survive, but to compete and thrive within Europe. The hundreds of Maltese working in the European institutions and agencies prove it daily. I never doubted it.

Could we have carried out essential structural reforms without the goal of EU accession?

Yes, perhaps. But it is undeniable that the EU has been our springboard, our stimulus, providing us with clear benchmarks, deadlines, and goals against which we have had to measure ourselves. The challenges ahead of us required a change in outlook. On this count, I think Malta has succeeded beyond expectation.

We Maltese have become more demanding of ourselves, of our politicians and our administrators. We rightly demand for ourselves European standards, at a minimum. Why not? These are now Maltese benchmarks and standards.

That is the choice we made, and it was the right one.

Dr Borg is European Commissioner responsible for fisheries and maritime affairs.