Wise words from wise leaders

There is nothing like hearing it from the horse's mouth. This is just what we did last Friday when, in the serene setting of San Anton Gardens, Eddie Fenech Adami and Guido de Marco replied to Reno Bugeja's perky questions on their personal reminiscences about Malta's EU membership application, submitted 20 years ago this month.

We all know the story, but not all of us know how these two political heavyweights who shaped our lives saw things at the time, why they took certain decisions and what they felt about others.

For Dr Fenech Adami, for instance, Malta could not have simply applied for EU membership immediately after the Nationalist Party won power in 1987. First, he said, the country needed to shed its maverick image and regain a modicum of credibility. That opportunity came with the Bush-Gorbachev summit when the two superpowers chose Malta to bury the Cold War in the Mediterranean. That put Malta on the map and opened the way to a credible membership bid.

Ironically, the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall brought about a rush towards EU membership by 10 former Communist countries and this delayed Malta's own membership timeframe.

So which country was most supportive of Malta's bid?

For Prof. de Marco there was no question that Italy was that country and it was no coincidence that Malta submitted its application under the Italian presidency on July 16, 1990. Hence, his memorable photo presenting the application to Italian Minister Gianni de Michelis.

Dr Fenech Adami adds that Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti was particularly supportive. However, during a crucial summit before the 1995 enlargement, in the small hours of the night after Mr Andreotti retired to bed, Malta was dropped from a list of countries that would be invited to join.

Ansa, the Italian news agency, announced that the original draft summit conclusions included the words "and possibly, Malta". However, the next morning, Malta disappeared from the list. It later transpired that German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had expressed reservations leading to Malta's exclusion from this wave of enlargement.

Was there any specific resistance to Malta's membership?

No single country openly opposed Malta. However, one could sense some diffidence about Malta based on its negative image in the international arena at the time. Malta had an image of a veto-wielding maverick that could not be trusted. And many a foreign leader suggested to Prof. de Marco that Malta was also too small to be given the right to a veto that could block EU decisions or even the right for a European commissioner.

But Prof. de Marco flatly dismissed any suggestion that Malta could join the Union as a second-class member. "You made the rules and if you get the veto and a commissioner, we get them too", he pointedly told foreign leaders.

1. Of course, Malta's credibility suffered another blow when the new Labour government froze the application in 1996. And when, in 1998, a new PN Administration reinstated it, EU Enlargement Commissioner, Hans Van den Broek, callously remarked that Europe was not a "switch-on-switch-off" affair. It took Prof. de Marco a veritable crusade to persuade him to back the island's bid, including a "working funeral" on the occasion of the burial ceremony of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

"You cannot imagine what we went through", Prof. de Marco said, "in order to persuade other countries to support us. I travelled regularly from one capital to another and, when a country elected a new government, I had to start from scratch. But we stuck to our guns. Insistence, persistence and consistency were our battle cry", he said.

On the referendum, Dr Fenech Adami revealed that Romano Prodi, the former president of the European Commission, was alarmed to hear that Malta would call a referendum so close to the signing of the Accession Treaty on April 16, 2003. What if it went wrong?

But Dr Fenech Adami had it all planned out. "We worked backwards from April 16" he said. "The last possible Saturday to hold an election before the signing ceremony was April 12 whereas the last possible Saturday to hold the referendum before the five weeks election campaign was March, 8."

And when Prof. Prodi called him again expressing renewed alarm that, after the referendum, Malta would also hold an election before the signing ceremony, Dr Fenech Adami retorted confidently: "The Maltese people will simply confirm the result of the referendum in the general election. They will not change their minds in five weeks."

The PN went on to win.

Asked about the country's future in the EU, both leaders were clear.

"You must remain relevant", Prof. de Marco said.

"Malta's voice of reason can make a difference", Dr Fenech Adami added.

Wise words indeed.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

www.simonbusuttil.eu