It has been a 100 days since Jean Claude Juncker assumed the role of president of the European Commission. At his address to the European Parliament, he spoke of a new start for Europe.
Some of the quotes from that address include: “We have fallen behind because we have stood still”; “competitiveness is not achieved through social regression”; “I would like to mobilise €300 billion in public and, above all, private investments over the next three years”; “We will not change the elements of the Growth and Stability Pact”.
These have been good statements of intent, to which we need to add the 10 priorities that have been set. Those which relate to the economy are a new boost to jobs, growth and investment; a connected digital single market; a deeper and fairer internal market with a strengthened industrial base; a deeper and fairer economic and monetary union; and a reasonable and balanced free trade agreement with the US.
What has happened so far in these 100 days? It may be said that these are still early days and so one cannot expect any delivery on the promises made. It may equally be said that these 100 days should have been sufficient to lay the ground for strong concrete action.
In fact, there has been some concrete action. The negotiations with the US on the free trade agreement are continuing. Good work has also been done in the area of tax evasion and fraud. However, more needs to be done to help member states implement the much-needed structural reforms. In this latter case, the European Commission has tended to use the stick rather than the carrot. Probably this strategy has to change if the EC is to achieve buy-in by those member states involved.
In other areas no progress has been recorded. Two such areas are the creation of a connected digital single market and the development of a deeper economic and monetary union.
Malta’s creditable economic performance should enable the government to take on a stronger role within the EU institutions and to make its voice heard
To be fair to Juncker, he has not been helped by developments in Ukraine, Libya and the Middle East, as well as the terrorist attacks in France and Denmark. These have acted as more than mere distractions for a number of leading European politicians. They have created uncertainty in what is already a highly uncertain environment. Maybe the developments in Greece with the election of Tsipras were to be expected, even if they are time consuming to resolve.
Going back to the economic priorities set by Juncker, one may conclude that Malta would generally stand to gain from their implementation. In certain cases, one may even think that they do not concern us given our economic performance. However, I would like to look at the opportunities for Malta arising from such issues.
A stronger EU economy will contribute to economic growth in Malta. The investment in the digital single market can only be good news for an island such as ours. A deeper internal market with a strengthened industrial base is music to our ears considering that as a country we have always believed that we need to maintain our own strong industrial base. A free trade agreement with the US is likely to open up new opportunities for our exporting companies.
On the other hand, we may need to understand better what is meant by a deeper economic and monetary union. Such a union will need to respect our economic model and our ability to achieve economic growth within this model. We cannot be relegated to the periphery through one-size-fits-all rules.
Thus the jury on the first 100 days of Juncker must still be out, as in some respects we are still waiting to go beyond the rhetoric, while in others work has started in earnest. In any case, Malta’s creditable economic performance should enable the government to take on a stronger role within the EU institutions and to make its voice heard so that the president of European Commission delivers on his promises.