European Solidarity

 

I must admit that one of the reasons why I supported Malta's EU membership was the boost it would give to Malta's security - in relation to both external and homegrown threats. The economic reasons for joining were always rather feeble, as most of the benefits of membership (with the exception of structural funds, which in our case will not be there for very long) could easily have been achieved by joining EFTA and the EEA for example. Even greater benefits could have been achieved by aggressively pursuing a free-trade policy in acknowledgement of the fact that barriers to trade are the height of folly for an economy as tiny as ours. This will not be possible now that trade policy is no longer within our government's competence and when our partners appear to be moving towards isolationism and protectionism.

The failure of the EU to show any solidarity whatsoever with Denmark, during a difficult time has convinced me that I might have been wrong to expect the EU to enhance our external security in any significant way. It is quite apparent that an EU member state may be bullied by a number of third countries without receiving any support whatsoever from the EU or the other member states. This should be kept in mind by our policy-makers.

In the meantime, some well-meaning representative of the European Movement in Malta took the time to warn us in yesterday's Sunday Times that when people exercise the right to free speech they do so 'at their peril' if they happen to annoy someone else by what they say. We are, thankfully, allowed to say anything we like as long as we annoy and criticize no-one and, of course, as long as we do not 'shock or alarm public opinion' :)