News 23/06/2002

The Labourite who favours EU membership

Veteran economist and Malta Development Corporation founder Karmenu Farrugia is a self-confessed Labourite who favours Malta’s accession into the EU because of the positive measures the country would be obliged to adopt.

In a wide-ranging interview appearing in today’s issue of MaltaToday Mr Farrugia reserves harsh words for the political class when it comes to tackling important issues such as the environment and roads.

When asked whether he favours EU accession he does not mince his words. "I’m in favour but only just. I favour accession because of the measures we would be obliged to adopt for sure. The environment issue, the roads and others, we will have to abide by EU directives. Outside, we just promise, promise, promise - without doing anything," Mr Farrugia emphasises.

Referring to the Labour Party, Mr Farrugia admits that there are many issues on which he does not see eye to eye with Alfred Sant, although not enough to make him change allegiance. Mr Farrugia adds that Dr Sant’s inexperience showed when he went to the polls after 22 months in office.

"He knew he was not popular anymore. He knew that the people did not like some measures he had taken and he knew that fighting Mintoff was not a good move. But after winning with a majority of 7,000 votes in 1996, he invited a heavy defeat by a 13,000-vote margin. The sharp hike in water and electricity bills was a political fiasco. It was political suicide. But Dr Sant thought otherwise," Mr Farrugia says.

Karmenu Farrugia is yet another Labourite who has expressed himself in favour of Malta’s EU accession. And the mounting pressure from people close to the Labour Party like Mr Farrugia on the EU issue is taking its toll on the anti-EU image being portrayed by the Labour Party’s highest echelons.

Alfred Sant’s mid-week declaration that he is increasingly becoming convinced that both the European Union and partnership issues should be shelved for a couple of years came like a bolt in the blue.

For months the Labour Party has insisted that the next general election will be the only public expression that should decide once and for all, which foreign policy direction Malta was going to adopt, whether EU membership or partnership.

Dr Sant’s declaration was viewed by political observers as a meek attempt to minimise the importance of the EU issue in the forthcoming election. The Labour Party has a bigger chance of winning the election if the main issue is not the EU. But Dr Sant’s call came too late in the day given the Labour Party’s almost hysterical opposition to EU membership. At this stage Dr Sant’s statement can only be interpreted as a half-hearted attempt to mute the damage a positive referendum result can give in favour of membership.

Despite repeated questions from the press the Labour Party does not yet have an official policy on how it would interpret a referendum result, either way it goes. The party has continuously insisted that a referendum would not be binding on a future Labour government.