Richard Cachia Caruana, Malta former permanent representative to the EU, said this evening that with Malta set to become a net contributor to the EU in the coming years, it needed to negotiate a change to the rules to ensure that it did not pay more than its fair share.
Mr Cachia Caruana was commenting on TimesTalk - presented by Times of Malta - with discussed the state of play 10 years after Malta joined the EU. The studio guests were former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Foreign Minister George Vella.
Dr Vella, one of the strongest opponents of EU membership 10 years ago, said that in retrospect, the positives of accession had since outweighed the negatives for the country.
Dr Vella said not everything had been positive but on balance there were more advantages than disadvantages. The people were resilient and many did not notice the negative aspects, but those aspects still had their impact, he said. He listed among the advantages the fact that Malta had more fiscal discipline, stronger environment laws, more job opportunities for the Maltese abroad, and participation in EU fora.
Dr Gonzi said the biggest advantage for Malta, as a small economy, was access to a huge market. Malta also had access to EU funds which enabled it to improve its infrastructure and tourist product.
Malta, despite being small, had contributed to the EU, such as during the Libya crisis.
During the programme Dr Vella took a swipe at then EU Enlargement Commissioner Gunther Verheugen - a frequent Labour target ahead of the EU referendum. At the time, Dr Vella said, the commissioner was not democratic at all and had personally threatened him in the presence of Chris Cardona that if Labour did not give up in its opposition to EU membership, he would do his best to ensure that Malta did not get a penny from the EU if it stayed out. That, Dr Vella said, was outside Dr Verheugen's remit.
Asked whether Labour had paid a price for its opposition to EU membership, Dr Vella said he did not think there was a price. There had been deep debate on the issue in a democratic environment. Labour had committed itself to respect the decision in the election which followed the referendum, and did so. It did not pay any price, on the contrary, it won the subsequent first election to the European Parliament.
Dr Gonzi said the stiffest challenges to membership were in the first six months, particularly when initially consumers started to prefer new foreign imports over local produce. But then local quality improved and consumers were won back. The economy started to grow, and Malta started early to prepare for euro adoption, a very good decision in view of the subsequent international financial crisis.
Dr Vella said the pre-accession concerns expressed by Labour were the same still expressed overseas, such as the 'Polish plumber'. Happily, matters had gone better than expected.
Contributors to the programme included former prime ministers Eddie Fenech Adami and Alfred Sant and then chief negotiator Richard Cachia Caruana.
Dr Sant said the honeymoon was now over and the Maltese were seeing the EU in a more realistic manner. He regretted that the EU had not helped Malta enough on immigration and also pointed to other problems in areas such as agriculture (see video).
Among the points raised during the discussion was civil liberties. Dr Vella said he did not think liberalism should be directly linked to EU membership. Certain changes had come about as a result of the media and other issues. EU membership had not made a difference.
The difference was that rights given in the EU could not be denied in Malta and there were some rights which Malta had delayed for too long, such as the rights recently given to gays.
Obviously there were limits, and Dr Vella said that like Dr Gonzi, he would never accept the introduction of abortion in Malta. However should there be a test case before the European court he did not know where matters would end.
Dr Gonzi said the EU had no competence to decide these matters for Malta, but Malta could not be like a statue in a corner which said nothing.
CACHIA CARUANA REFLECTS ON THE FUTURE
Richard Cachia Caruana, chief negotiator and later permanent representative to the EU mentioned, three points which Malta needed to tackle in the EU for the future.
He said that it was important that Malta formed part of the EU energy network including having a gas pipeline so that it could benefit from the advantages of a market of 500 million people.
On immigration, Malta needed to work for an agreement - difficult but not impossible - so that voluntary relocation would become obligatory relocation.
Thirdly, Mr Cachia Caruana pointed out that in the coming years Malta would become a net contributor rather than a net beneficiary of the EU. However, unless the formula was changed, Malta would end up contributing more than its fair share. The issue was that agriculture was only a very small part of Malta's economy, but 40 per cent of the EU's budget went to agriculture. (See video)