Nobody likes signing blank cheques, least of all the business sector. A blank cheque would give the receiver total freedom on the sum and it would have to be honoured as it would contain the issuer's signature. It would leave the issuer very poor indeed and the receiver with no responsibility to shoulder. In certain respects, one of the options that we, especially the business sector, are asked to choose from on the European Union referendum issue is tantamount to sign not one but a number of blank cheques.
This is not so much because the conditions of EU membership are not known, but because the conditions that will apply if we decide to stay out of the EU are not known.
For the last three years the government has been negotiating with the European Commission on the conditions that will apply when Malta joins the European Union. Interested parties were asked to send representatives to the meetings that were held to discuss Malta's negotiating position. These interested parties included the trade unions, the various associations representing employers, the Malta Labour Party, as well as other bodies, like the fishermen's and the farmers' cooperatives.
The Malta Labour Party refused outright to take part in any of the discussions and the General Workers' Union was not a particularly pro-active participant. Suffice it to say that during discussions on the chapter regulating health and safety and the chapter regulating conditions of work, the GWU representative was quite conspicuous by his silence. We are now being asked by these two organisations and by another organisation called Campaign for National Independence to vote against membership of the EU.
The conditions of membership are known. The benefits that we shall be getting from membership are also known. The areas where government has got either a derogation (permanent or temporary) from applying the EU rules, or a transition period during which such rules would be applied partially, are also known. The type of assistance that we shall be getting from the EU to implement the acquis communautaire is also known. Similarly, we also know the extent to which we are going to be a net beneficiary from EU funds - Malta shall be receiving something like Lm81 million over a three-year period more than it contributes to the EU budget.
All this information is so readily available that those against membership have been seeking to explain what they do not like about the conditions negotiated by the government, and other areas where no negotiations took place because the government felt they would be of benefit to the country.
On the other hand, does anyone have any information on what would happen if we choose to stay out of the EU? Does anyone have any details about the conditions that will apply under the so-called "partnership arrangement"? Will the person that can give at least 10 (not much is it?) guaranteed conditions that would apply if Malta were to stay out of the EU stand up?
The business sector has made its choice based on certainty. The fact that only one per cent of the hoteliers are against EU membership; the fact that 90 per cent of the members of the Chamber of Commerce, Malta's oldest institution representing the business sector, are in favour of membership; the fact that a substantial majority of the Malta Federation of Industry members believes that EU membership would be better for their business than staying out; the fact that the Malta Employers Association expressed themselves in favour of Malta's membership of the EU, must mean something.
What it means is that those persons who risk their wealth on a daily basis to create further wealth from which the rest of the country benefits, have made a very important choice. They believe that EU membership creates new opportunities and that the future of their business, and hence of their employees, is more certain if Malta were to join than if it were to stay out of the EU. They are also aware that maintaining the status quo is not at all possible. Moreover, they have also rejected the partnership arrangement because it means nothing concrete to them.
The alternative to membership is really all hypothetical. Politicians hate being cornered with questions that are hypothetical in nature. Yet, we are being asked to choose between the certainty of membership and a hypothetical situation.
Businesses can take a risk and the reward of the risk they take is the profit they make. However, they do not like taking gambles because the reward of a gamble is invariably failure. They certainly do not like signing blank cheques. The choice to stay out of the EU is tantamount to gambling by signing not one but a number of blank cheques where we would foot the bill and the receiver of those cheques would get away scot-free.