Be careful how to vote at this month’s European Parliament elections. You may be choosing Malta’s future generation of leaders, if the past is anything to go by. Not much is being made of the simple fact that the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Finance Minister have all successfully migrated back from the European Parliament to our national Parliament.
All of these gentlemen had their first taste of parliamentary life when they contested the last MEP elections and all got elected only to subsequently resign as MEPs to become eligible for election to the Maltese Parliament. This in turn made them eligible to the very high office they all now hold.
They clearly embrace the European vision of a Europe which concentrates more on what all Europeans have in common than on what over the centuries has divided Europeans at a very high cost of lives and devastation even worldwide, as happened during the last two world wars.
Our ‘European brigade’ of MPs and now holders of high office are in turn united in achieving these ideals in Malta as they were as MEPs. To do this, they have understood more than ever the central importance which democratic values have played in building the modern European Union.
States such as Spain, Portugal and Greece had to shed their extreme right-wing dictatorial past before even considering applying for EU membership, as also all the countries from the former Soviet bloc had to do away with their extreme left-wing dictators.
Can there ever be more lasting memories than viewing on television the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the fall of such abject dictators as Nicolae Ceaucescu’s infamous dictatorship, just to name one of the very many?
Equally, democracy cannot function without the observance of fundamental human rights, which forms the second fundamental political pillar on which the era of peace brought by the EU is built on.
Here, credit needs to be given also to the Council of Europe which, in creating the unique model of human rights protections represented by the European Convention of Human Rights and the indispensable work of the European Court of Human Rights of Strasbourg, has united all of Europe, even beyond the EU, in the crusade of enforcing the rights of the person in whichever European state one happens to be.
Be careful how to vote at this month’s MEP elections. You may be choosing Malta’s future generation of leaders
It is in these ideals of peace, democracy and respect of fundamental human rights which we find the true reasons why the EU is still vitally important for us all despite the severe hardships undergone by the citizens of so many of its member states, brought about by the long and hard-biting financial crisis.
The EU therefore is the long-lasting monument to the saying that people do not live on bread alone.
Many do resent the notorious EU bureaucracy and the democratic deficit, which are often lamented in regard to the face of the EU institutions.
The EU has to address these issues before it is too late. The strengthening of the so-called eurosceptic parties all over Europe is enough proof for the need of constant reform.
However, the true antidote to this eurosceptic threat to European unity must be in remembering that without the EU it would be very, very difficult to maintain within Europe another 69 years of the post-war peace, democracy and respect of fundamental human rights which, together with the free movement of people and of trade, have been guaranteed by the EEC first and the EU later.
Allow me therefore to pay tribute to the great European that was the lamented former editor of The Sunday Times of Malta, Anthony Montanaro, who was second to none in his firm belief that the EU’s principal function to all the peoples of Europe, and in fact of the world, is its unique capability to maintain peace and democracy in Europe.
When as an ardent Yes for Europe campaigner I used to grapple with great difficulty the economic complexities of the euro, Montanaro was steadfast in urging me not to waste too much of my mental energy on complicated economic and monetary issues but to concentrate on what the EU is really all about: peaceful and political freedom for all Europeans.
This year’s MEP candidates should also take note of the fact the vast majority of the Maltese and Gozitans are more than satisfied with the benefits reaped over the past 10 years of Malta’s accession.
To err is human but to persevere is diabolical.