A discussion paper by The Today Public Policy Institute on how 10 years of EU membership have changed the country is not exactly the kind of material one would wish to read on a deckchair on the beach in summer.
However, there is enough food for thought in it to provoke discussion on a wide range of issues, all key to the island’s development as it enters into its adulthood age in a European Union that is facing stiff challenges in the wake of so many strains and stresses among members.
Malta has done well in the EU, not only in terms of material benefit, but also in the enhancement of values and standards. The fact that 61 per cent of the people think of themselves as European in addition to being Maltese shows how strongly the country has entrenched itself in the EU. The EU average is 54 per cent. The way Malta managed to keep going during one of the worst financial crises in modern times earned the island a good name.
But there have also been knocks to our image. The institute gives as examples the John Dalli affair; the intervention by the European Court of Human Rights on the migrant pushback threat; the vote against the cash for passports scheme in the European Parliament; and the bad publicity over spring hunting.
As the institute states in the discussion paper, it is now “important that any damage is repaired, and that the reservoir of goodwill towards Malta is replenished”.
More importantly, however, the country will need to make an extra effort not to make any wrong moves. Besides mapping out the past and the present in the country’s relations with the EU, the institute has also, as expected in such a study, highlighted the challenges on the home front.
To name but a few, it said, we must continue to reduce the number of early school leavers and truly become a knowledge economy; get a higher proportion of people, especially women, to participate in the labour force; balance the budget; reduce the size of the public sector; seriously address the future consequences of an ageing population; and reduce the administrative burden on economic operators. The country also has to have a justice system that works in real time.
These are all important but there is also need for the country (not just the public sector) to become more efficient all round. It is undeniable that some progress has been made in recent years, but there is still a huge gap to fill if Malta wants to move ahead in an increasingly competitive world. It needs to cut unnecessary expenditure, not simply to fulfill the requirement of keeping the deficit below the three per cent threshold, but equally, if not more important, to ensure that the economy operates in a leaner fashion.
Efficiency has to become a byword of the way we operate. It is not a matter of whether or not a significant proportion of our workforce is on half days in summer. Adjusting working times to suit employees may produce better performance at times. It is the frame of mind, the attitude towards how we operate, that needs to undergo the greatest change.
In this regard, the government is giving a bad example by having the biggest and most expensive Cabinet ever. The island is over-administered, a matter that ought to occupy the minds of those seeking to bring about the kind of efficiency that will make the island more attractive to foreign investors.