Your views, my mission

Last week, I attended the Our Views, Your Mission conference organised by the Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin, which delved into the importance of Europe and its relationship with the citizens of the member states forming part of the bloc. The conference stressed that, unlike other European countries, it is not very difficult to motivate Maltese voters to participate in an election. It is also imperative, however, to make European elections more focused and to move away from partisan politics as much as possible so as to focus on bringing Europe closer to the citizen.

The UĦM has compiled a list of themes it considers to be the most pressing national issues - subject areas which they would like MEPs to focus on and to do their utmost to raise their profile on the European agenda.

Competitiveness is at the forefront of the UĦM's concerns because of a fear that a lowering of competitiveness could lead to a downward, cost-cutting spiral that erodes worker and trade union rights and works against the long-term interests of consumers. The threats we have in the world economic system should, on the other hand, lead us to maximise our resources, develop new products and activities with the ultimate objective of raising productivity.

A rather interesting example in this sense is the case of Vaxholm, in Sweden. In this case, trade unions took action against a Latvian construction company that employed Latvian workers without regard to the Swedish collective bargaining agreement. We must realise that, as globalisation brings our societies closer together, it also tends to leave a ripple effect wherever harm is done.

With regard to growth and jobs, it is crucial to point out how important the EU's strategy for better regulation vis-a-vis SMEs has been. Small businesses stand to reap great benefits from the modernisation and simplification of existing EU legislation and from the programme to ease administrative burdens arising from EU legislation by 25 per cent by 2012. Due to the present economic crisis, SMEs are going to face financial difficulties since they are particularly vulnerable to shocks. It is therefore imperative that every effort is made to cater for their needs and demands.

I was also particularly impressed by the well-timed mention of the European social model. It is reassuring to see how a trade union representing an overwhelming number of members so readily points out how European member states share a common vision of how society should be organised. The social model is vital to the welfare of the people not only in Europe but also globally. Nevertheless, there are many improvements to be made and the EU still has a great deal to do to achieve an ideal society. Although the EU is aiming to achieve higher growth and prosperity through a single internal market for goods and services, in this case it must also recognise the emergence of a single labour market. It is also true that some member states, in particular Nordic countries, have been more successful in achieving high growth and low unemployment. The EU needs to learn from examples of best practice and assess how certain systems may be applied to different member states.

The European Commission's proposal for the globalisation adjustment fund was welcomed and the report dealing with the European globalisation fund, of which I have been appointed spokesman for the EPP-ED group, is suggesting that the total assistance per year should be increased from the original €500 million to €1 billion in order to be able to address as many problems as possible.

Support for workers hit by major industrial restructuring, possibly even as a direct result of the economic turmoil, is crucial if we want to safeguard the employment sector at this delicate stage where estimates are predicting zero or negative economic growth in the upcoming months. As the spokesman of this fund, I am striving to input my ideas to tweak the mechanisms of this fund to better suit the different scales of countries in the European Union.

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

www.davidcasa.eu, david@davidcasa.eu