Editorial

It is a testimony to how well Malta has adapted to EU membership that the country's entry into the Union five years ago already seems a distant memory.

So too is the struggle that preceded it. Division on a political level meant that the country had to go through the toughest of processes to take its rightful place in Europe; and the need to adapt in the economic sphere meant that many businesses were forced to invest and rethink the way they did things.

The arguments put forward back then were that it made sense to be part of a unified continent, with strength in numbers and access to a market of 500 million people; that with EU funding Malta would be able to carry out major projects; that with EU rules the country would be forced to turn around environmental scars like the Magħtab landfill.

No one would have imagined then that five years down the line the topic of debate would centre, almost exclusively, on the phenomenon of illegal immigration - which has intensified in recent months, reaching boiling point when Italian Home Affairs Minister Roberto Maroni decided to make incendiary comments when Malta refused to take a boatload of migrants who were just a few miles away from Lampedusa.

Some will blame the migration problems on EU membership, arguing perhaps that Malta would not be seen as a gateway to Europe were it not a member. In fact the opposite is the case. The country is better able to deal with the problem because it is a member.

This does not mean that the other member states are showing solidarity in the way they should - far from it - but at least the possibility exists that they will be persuaded that this is the best way forward. This would not have been an option if Malta was not in the EU.

Nor would anyone have imagined then - a period of boom in Europe and beyond - that the world would be going through its worst economic crisis in 70 years.

But EU membership has been beneficial for Malta in this respect too. The changes various industries were forced to make to come into line with the Union's rules made them more robust and competitive. And the fact that the island managed to adopt a strong and stable currency like the euro just months before the crisis took hold has put it in a better position to see things through.

One only has to look at countries that do not have the euro as their currency to imagine what the consequences might have been had this not been the case.

But despite the political vision that took the country into the EU, and the wise - again needlessly politically controversial - decision over the timing of adopting its main currency, in certain areas Malta has failed to either observe the obligations of membership or to exploit the benefits.

The EU has been forced to issue one infringement notice after another over the environment because the government has dragged its feet on several issues. And although Malta has the potential to tap €1.15 billion in funds, inertia has led to important spending deadlines being missed.

We have to brush up our act if we are to make the most of it. EU membership is not, as some people think, about what we can get. But the more we put in, the better off we will be.