The secretary general of the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, Gejtu Vella, recently proposed that the social partners enter into what he called patt socjali. It is a turn of phrase that may not have the same meaning if literally translated into English; however I decided to do just that in the title of this week's contribution.

The point is that Mr Vella's proposal merits consideration and even support. A number of persons had made such a proposal in the past months and, unfortunately, not much notice was given to them. I can appreciate why there was such a reaction.

So long as the issue of membership of the European Union was wide open, it was difficult to achieve consensus on a number of other issues. Now that the Malta Labour Party has stated that it would be damaging for the country to insist that Malta should not join the EU, but that its policy is to be one of seeking to achieve better conditions than the ones that the present government achieved (thereby accepting as given Malta's membership of the EU), the EU issue is closed. This has changed the local scenario to the extent that it is now possible not only to speak of a social pact, but also to work towards achieving it and implementing it.

The requirement for such a social pact is not a short-term one, even if it is urgently needed. The requirement stems from the fact that a number of the issues that need to be addressed have very important long-term implications.

Irrespective of who is in government in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years, irrespective of who the trade union leaders at that time shall be, irrespective of the nature of whatever business landscape we shall have, the issues of the competitiveness of businesses operating in Malta, the public sector deficit, the sustainability of the country's welfare system, the need to protect the environment, the need to invest in education, the need for foreign direct investment, shall always be there. And short-term decisions today shall impact negatively in the long-term.

We have had various experiences with social dialogue. It started with the statutory fusion between the Malta Labour Party, then in government, and the General Workers Union. That fusion was flawed from the start and it is an experience that should not be repeated because it did not serve the country well. It reduced the independence of either of the two institutions and it was exclusive in nature, in that it excluded the rest of society. Thus it was the worst form of social dialogue that one could have.

Then we had the Malta Council for Economic Development which was inclusive in nature, in that it included all the major organisations in Malta, having some sort of role in the economy. The independence of these organisations was also maintained.

However, these various organisations were keen to present their point of view, even very forcefully, but not that keen to listen to other opinions, seek the common ground and find solutions. All felt that their own solution was the best.

The MCED was enhanced through the addition of the social dimension to its brief. The Malta Council for Economic and Social Development was given a higher profile as it started to form part of the prime minister's portfolio. Thus the element of inclusion was strengthened, but the balance between the search for commonly agreed solutions and the maintaining of the independence of each organisation represented on it continued to prove difficult to find.

The negotiations with the European Union also served as an opportunity to strengthen social dialogue, with continual consultations between government and various organisations representing civil society, the business sector and employees. In fact, many such organisations seized the opportunity and took an active part in the negotiation process, but there was also the odd organisation here and there that played a detached role.

These experiences have taught us a lesson or two. One is the element of inclusion. Excluding someone would render any attempt at social dialogue useless. I believe that a social pact should include the Malta Labour Party and Alternattiva Demokratika.

The second lesson is that, although all organisations taking part are to maintain their independence, parochial interests have to be left out of the discussion. The platform for the discussion to achieve a social pact should be the common good and not the good of this group or that group.

The agenda of such a pact should not be that difficult to draw up. There are a number of economic issues that need to be tackled together with a number of social issues that in turn have an economic impact.

Other countries have been through such an experience and they have emerged much strengthened after it. At present this is the policy that Singapore is pursuing to tackle the negative impact of the international economic slowdown on its economy.

The objective should be to agree on targets that are to be achieved in respect to a number of economic and social indicators, to agree on policies that need to be implemented to achieve these targets and to agree on a broad strategy on how these policies are to be implemented. A social pact is realisable - we just have to convince ourselves that it is in the best interests of the country to have one.