Depopulation in small EU islands like Gozo will become irreversible unless exceptional measures are allowed which do not necessarily comply with wider EU rules and policies, former Prime Minister Alfred Sant said.
He was meeting Gozitan youths from the Gozo Youth Council and the Gozo University Group who expressed their concerns at the lack of employment opportunities in Gozo and the resultant brain drain being experienced on the island.
The Gozitan youths, meeting the Maltese MEP at the University campus in Gozo, said that although they realise that their prospects of building a career were in Malta and beyond, they still aspired and wished that Gozo would offer more work opportunities for Gozitans to be able to continue to live on their island home.
For this to happen, Gozo needed immediate investment in its economic infrastructure, foremost being a second fibre optic cable.
Reacting to the students’ concerns, Dr Sant said that together with MEPs from other Mediterranean countries, he was pressing for special treatment from the European Commission for islands like Gozo, without a national capital, which were attached to an island state.
Dr Sant told the students that earlier this year he amended a resolution on the insularity in island regions at the European Parliament specifically addressing Gozitans’ concerns that the island’s special circumstances warranted special treatment.
The students highlighted the need of better synergy between the academic and vocational educational institutions and employment generators and employment seekers. They mentioned their concerns on the lack of equality between wages paid in Malta and those paid in Gozo.
With regards to job opportunities within the hotel industry, both youths and the Maltese MEP noted that replacement investment was not being done within such industry, causing downsizing in the industry.
Dr Sant said that this was, unfortunately, also the trend in small islands in Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Greece and Croatia which faced similar challenges.
Dr Sant invited the youths to attend the S&D public debate organised by his Office in Gozo and discuss how Gozo could develop in Europe. The debate is being held on October 28 at the Grand Hotel in Gozo.