Walking forward, looking backwards

Ishall not waste precious time responding to the tacky level of Victor Scerri's article Labour's Final Frontier (November 29,) and detailing his own come-uppance and his near-misses, his words of yesteryear and his modifications of today. The Maltese political arena has long progressed beyond that level.

Dr Scerri's contribution essential replays the jaded sing-along arguments the Nationalist Party, over whose council he presides, blared in their campaign for joining the European Union: Essentially, the trooping of the starry EU colours, without any consultation of what the ordinary Maltese citizen expects from EU accession. The reasons that drove the PN to join the EU in the 1970s may not be all that relevant nowadays.

The PN did not prepare itself for EU accession and neither did it prepare the country.

We can now see this as self-evident and have to bear the burden of grossly inadequate preparation. But it is not the PN as perpetrator that has to shoulder this burden but each and every one of us. Every man, woman and child is put out of pocket by the atrocious utility increases, whether directly through their ballooning bill or indirectly through cost-induced inflation.

Moreover, like the ghosts at cockcrow, the handy over-trumpeted excuse of the augmented international price of crude has disappeared and the Nationalist government now appears naked in the headlights, wantonly fleecing the electorate.

Almost everywhere abroad where the price of fuel had hitherto increased in proportion to the increase in crude prices, it also kept this relationship on the opposite direction.

The price of crude oil fell to as low as to 30 per cent of its high (to $44 from a high of $147). Prices at the pump consequently also fell worldwide. Not so in Malta. They were cheekily increased. And if this were not enough, the spectre of a tariff on drainage use has also been re-animated by Lawrence Gonzi's gang.

The PN in government stamps out ad hoc rules and regulations as if these were freshly enacted within the EU where, in reality, they would have long been the norm. Clearly, the country is being managed by crisis. Like a naughty schoolboy who fails to do his homework, this government muddles through, stumbling in serendipity till his ears are clipped by Big Daddy in Europe: with the difference, however, that the punishment is really paid by the people.

The PN in government is walking forward but looking backwards and solid walls do not have a tendency to step aside. It seems oblivious of the fact that the EU is rapidly transforming itself. Having reached accession it has taken a seat by the fireside and is busy slouching on its laurels.

Nowhere does Dr Scerri mention that the EU is becoming more and more citizen-oriented rather than organisation-oriented. Maybe that is why he cannot comprehend the programme I am proposing in this vein for the months ahead. Maybe that is why he cannot comprehend the court ruling that mandates the re-imbursement of medical expenses abroad. Adequate and prompt medical care is something I shall fight for tooth and nail and I aim to assist our citizens to make full use of this benefit deriving from EU membership, one benefit of many others that can be enjoyed.

Just because it ostentatiously flies the starry flag, the PN in government thinks it can get away with murder or, rather, with breaking the regulations of the very club emblazoned on its t-shirt. To add insult to injury, these are often regulations that are there to protect the citizens against abuse by their own government. A case in point is the payment twice-over of VAT where second-hand cars imported from the EU itself are concerned. Every car purchased in the EU has VAT already paid on it. Why should the citizen pay again if the car is re-sold? Have we forgotten that VA in VAT stands for value added? What value was added in the case of a resale of a second hand car, I pray?

I strongly suspect that his long-standing abuse was finally stopped as declared in the last budget speech because someone's ear was roundly clipped. But what about all those who have already paid this ridiculous tax? Are they to expect a refund? Don't hold your breath.

Joining the EU is not a vision. A blank wall in front of one's face is not a vision; it is what can be painted on that wall that is the vision. Where Europe is headed is the vision and that is a composite vision, ideally composed by all its citizens.

Since I form part of the Labour Party and of the European Socialist Group, I concur that it is from the left that a conduit of benefits from accession between the EU establishment and its component citizens can be constructed and strengthened. Our vision is a Europe with a social disposition and not just a blindly economic one. The citizen should be at the hub and it is for this hub that we should draw the fruits of our labour. That is my own personal mission and now I am furnished with the tools to achieve it.

Mr Bedingfield is a Labour member of the European Parliament.

www.glennbedingfield.com