In five short years of EU membership, Malta has witnessed what is perhaps its most significant political, legal, economic and social change since independence.
And even if we may not care to realise, this has affected us too... In our daily lives.
Just take a look around and see for yourself.
You will not be surprised that mine is a positive assessment. But that does not mean that I think that it is enough. Or that we should be satisfied. We can still do more and we can still do better. But we are on the right track.
On a number of counts we continue to lag behind European standards and we must catch up. Law enforcement, for instance, remains a weak point, with the public administration often lacking sufficient resources to get into shape or otherwise too slow to act, if at all. There is also an equally disturbing public resistance to the discipline that comes with meeting higher standards.
In terms of exploiting the EU market we can also do better. Many more entrepreneurs need to broaden their outlook and think in terms of the wider EU market beyond our shores rather than limit themselves to localised sectors that have long shown signs of saturation, such as retailing.
And at a time when the world is facing a major economic crisis, EU membership becomes more, not less, relevant.
Other countries face soaring unemployment, ballooning deficits, mounting debts and even social unrest. Iceland, until recently rated among the richest countries in the world, faces economic collapse and is now turning to EU and euro membership for refuge.
In the face of these challenges, the need to use EU membership as a tool to stay afloat and to prepare ourselves for the rebound becomes even more compelling.
This is not to say that Europe has provided all the answers. On some issues, chief among which is immigration, we have found, at our expense, that European solidarity stopped short at financial support. When we needed more. We found that a European policy still needed to be developed to provide common solutions to what is essentially a common challenge. In turn, we have contributed constructively to help shape this fledgling policy every step of the way.
Five years on, we have truly moved on. True, they have been hard years of adaptation. But we have been resilient, we have benefitted and we seen positive results.
There is no reason to believe that, having learnt the ropes, we should not do even better. I am confident that we can do so.
Yes, we can.