Membership of the EU should mean a better standard of living for our families, better job opportunities and a high level of educational attainment by our young people, and a more socially-just environment where every member of society feels that he or she is being treated fairly. This is the social Europe that the social democratic parties of the EU believe in, and that we in the Labour Party will work for when we are in government.
Since Lawrence Gonzi became Prime Minister the standard of living of Maltese families has fallen, and is expected to do so again in 2008. In fact, in Malta the GDP per capita as a percentage of the EU average has fallen in 2007 and is expected to fall further this year. This is one classic measure of gauging the standard of living in a particular country. But quite honestly those of us who kept in touch with Maltese families throughout the past few years did not need this statistic to understand why our households were struggling to remain where they were.
Eurostat confirms that since EU membership, the Maltese economy has created fewer jobs than the economies of most of the new EU members. And there are very good reasons for this. While our Government's efforts were concentrated on selling the local publicly-owned companies to patch up ailing public finances, not enough importance was given to promoting higher educational achievement and attracting productive direct foreign investment.
Malta has the worst record in the EU of school leavers who are unqualified, and therefore practically unemployable. Almost half of our young people are not prepared to face the real world at the beginning of the 21st century, where more than just the ability to read and write will give you a fair chance of making it in life.
And yet Gonzi and his dream team try to sell us the nirvana of achieving excellence in 2015 in the field of Education and IT. Those like Gonzi who treat people like fools do not deserve to lead the country, never mind win the next election.
The environment attracted similar shabby treatment by the outgoing Nationalist administration. The interests of peaceful communities have been ignored and their meek protests against the threat to the quality of their lives by unbridled development fell on deaf ears.
By making our towns and villages uglier, we are not only affecting our own families, but also threatening the future of our tourism industry. Gonzi's solution to all this neglect of duty under his administration is that, if re-elected, he will take personal charge of reforming the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.
Health services are possibly at the worst level they have been in the last two decades. Long waiting lists, unavailable free medicine, and a serious shortage of medical and paramedical staff undermine the consensus we always had up to now of guaranteeing a free and efficient public health service. We have only a few days left to ensure that the public health service remains free and improves its efficiency under a Labour administration which really believes in a Social Europe. No wonder the majority of Maltese families are yearning for change. We will guarantee a smooth transition where all those who want to contribute to the well-being of our country will be encouraged to do so. We will be a one-nation government and will encourage the sectors that are doing well to continue to grow.
We will reform those sectors where we are obviously failing because the ambition for our country is to exploit our EU and eurozone membership by reaching the standards achieved in the more advanced EU countries. We will help Maltese families to cope with the ever-increasing cost of living through a number of fiscal incentives.
For all this to happen, change is needed. And the Labour Party is the best promoter of change because our families deserve better than what they are getting under a politically geriatric Nationalist administration.
cmangion@keyworld.net