Doubters, not admirers, needed in EP

Simon Busuttil says (Shaking Off The Past, March 11) that the Labour Party is, six years after Malta joined the EU, "less than convincing on Europe". But he does not say, or imply, anywhere in his article that Labour would pull Malta out of the EU should it be elected to government.

Of course he does not. Because he knows very well that would be a stark untruth, and even a candidate of the Nationalist Party for the European Parliament elections would not go that far. Not because it is beyond them to say that, but because Dr Busuttil, himself a candidate for the June 6 EP election, knows that such a lie, were it to be uttered, would rebound on him.

So what does he mean by "less than convincing"?

What I think he means is that Labour is not, like the Nationalist Party, blinded by admiration for the EU, as the Nationalist Party, and particularly Dr Busuttil, are. And, frankly, I prefer that. I do not want my representatives in bureaucratic Brussels to be so passionate about the EU that they would not realise that wool is being pulled over their eyes.

I want my EP representatives to be on their toes, to treat even what is favourable to Malta with doubt, if not contempt. For if the EU gives us something, no matter how generous, I would want my representatives to ask for more, not smile and say thank you.

For instance, I would not want my representatives in Brussels to come to Malta and tell us what a triumph the asylum pact was for Malta, when that pact has not helped us one bit in the immigration problem which is threatening to overwhelm us.

Has Dr Busuttil said anything about that? I mean, that the EU played a charade with us on illegal immigration, and has left us by ourselves to deal with the problem? We do not want money for this problem, we want the EU to do something about the number of illegal immigrants in Malta. Money does not help the situation, fewer illegal immigrants would. And the EU has failed us abysmally there. What has Dr Busuttil done about that? Apart from useless, though visible, flourishes, such as the ineffective Frontex.

The fact is that the PN's MEPs are not what we want in Brussels. In Brussels we want doubters, not admirers. We want representatives who stand up for our rights, not representatives who accept whatever the EU dishes out because they feel overwhelmed at being in Brussels with Europe's "big boys".