EU membership: Eight years on

Richard Cachia Caruana, our Permanent Representative in Brussels, was spot on last Saturday when he said that EU membership is a tool, but that it takes a good government to use that tool skilfully and successfully.

… with the Labour Party we risk going down the Greek path- Simon Busuttil

It pretty much sums up what we should be looking for when assessing our performance as members of the European Union after eight years.

Indeed, many EU countries have used the tool skilfully and have done well out of membership.

But some did not.

Along with Malta, Poland and Estonia can be singled out as positive case studies. And going further back, Finland and Luxembourg are outstanding cases. Inversely, Greece is the classic case of failure, whereas Portugal and Italy rank in the list of those that have been missing opportunities. More recent members, such as Hungary and Romania, have also stumbled along, spending more time on the ground than on their feet.

In all of these cases, there is little doubt that the ability of the national governments to help their country make the best of membership has been, at best, questionable. Many times this was due to the weakness of the governments that prevented them from taking the right, but politically difficult, decisions. In some cases it just boiled down to sheer incompetence.

Back to Malta. There is no question that membership has been a success. And the results are there for all to see.

Here are some examples.

Economic growth has increased steadily since we joined, whereas unemployment has been consistently low even as we went through a difficult adjustment period of shifting from uncompetitive to competitive economic activities.

Inflation generally remained low whereas public finances have been put on a sound footing, especially as a result of the discipline that we accepted by joining the euro zone.

And speaking of discipline, membership has allowed us to finally deal with perennial problems in many public companies, such as the shipyards, that were draining tens of millions of your taxes each year.

At €1.3 billion in the first eight years, EU funding has also been a major success story, allowing us to continue upgrading our public infrastructure to one that fits a modern European country, even though we still have some way to go.

Many of you have also experienced the benefits of membership on a more personal level. Or know family members who have.

Be it your freedom to travel to other EU countries, not least thanks to low-cost flights. Or working, studying or training in other member states, often thanks to EU programmes and funding. In this sense, membership has been a veritable liberation for a small insular community.

But there has also been some pain. If you had a business or a job that lost out on competition, it must not have been easy. And if you feel that reducing our public deficit came at a high price for you, I can understand.

Ultimately, both adjustment and discipline require sacrifice and by definition, sacrifice is likely to be painful, no matter how necessary.

One may also argue that the benefits of membership have not been evenly distributed. Whereas thousands of new jobs have been created with high take-home pays in newly created economic sectors, a section of our workforce has remained stuck in low-paid jobs or in jobs that offer worsening working conditions.

This plight cannot be ignored.

Having gone through the most tricky years of adjustment, it is therefore important to refocus our attention.

On the one hand we need to continue to spur growth, mostly by encouraging new investment, both local and foreign, as well as by pushing our businesses to accelerate their drive to reach out well beyond our shores. On the other, we need to redouble our efforts to ease the plight of those who feel left behind and to make sure that they too start feeling part of this success story.

That leaves one important question. Within less than a year, we shall be asked to decide who to trust to run the country for the next five years. That question will bring with it the responsibility of deciding whom to trust most to make the best use of the tool of EU membership.

And here’s the thing: judging by their astounding lack of proposals and their even more abysmal lack of financial discipline, with the Labour Party we risk going down the Greek path. For it is precisely these kind of failures that led Greece and some other EU countries to their current predicaments.

Just look at the unease in the markets this week at the victory in France of Francois Hollande. It speaks volumes.

It will not take much.

Just a few wrong decisions and we will all end up paying the price. That price will be toughest on those who can least afford it.

So eight years on, one lesson is clear.

EU membership is a splendid tool. But it takes a good government to use it successfully.

Dr Busuttil is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.