One advantage highlighted innumerable times prior to Malta’s accession to the European Union was our access to a market of hundreds of millions of potential consumers.

The news that the European Union is impotent at maintaining a tariff hurdle for such products as flat screen monitors originating from countries outside the EU such as the United States, Japan and Taiwan, brings to nought the supposed advantage of the single market.

Another advantage which helped sway voters was that by belonging to the European Union, citizens from member states could work without any problems in another member state. Now Serbia, India and China are not members of the European Union yet their nationals seemingly find no problem in working in Malta (and undoubtedly in other EU countries). So apart from higher taxes, mountains of red tape tied to “funding” and the need to support a larger army of civil servants, oops sorry, “Commission” officers, and the short straw for consumers, motorists, pensioners and properly married couples, what exactly is the net benefit of remaining in the European Union?