News • October 12 2003

Arnold Cassola: made for the job of Euro MP

By a staff reporter
As expected, it will be Arnold Cassola who will be contesting for one of the five European Parliament seats in June 2004 for the Alternattiva Demokratika ticket after being confirmed by members during yesterday’s annual general meeting. The Green Party spokesperson on European Affairs is also the current secretary general for the European Federation of Green Parties, the first non-EU national ever to be elected to the council of a European political party federation.
Since 1990, he has been Malta’s delegate to the European Greens, and he was twice elected secretary-general of the EFGP. So far he is the only candidate for the EP with any real experience within the European Union. "I know the kind of environment and the way politics work in Brussels, understanding the way co-operation and collaboration works in the European Parliament, as opposed to our confrontational style of politics," Cassola tells MaltaToday. "Although this is obviously biased from my part, I see myself as having a head start when it comes to the politics in Brussels. In Malta it seems that most of us are born into two rival political families, geared to battle each other. In the EU, it is the politics of collaboration that brings results."
Come 2004, the electoral system will not be simply electing political parties to the European Parliament, but national representatives who will be there to represent the island’s interests irrespectively of party allegiance. The ‘wasted vote’ argument no longer applies for this election since the whole of the island will be grouped into one electoral district. This time, every vote counts.
"I suppose consistency is my strong point in that I have stuck by my principles in all these years of activity with Alternattiva Demokratika since 1989. We have been a European party ever since our birth, and maybe that’s because we are a young party. Certainly it is because we have a long track record of European relations."
Cassola says AD’s thrust throughout this campaign will be to prove that Malta’s economic interests are intrinsically connected to the environment. "Tourism is responsible for 25 per cent of our island’s GDP. If we do not have clean water to bathe in and if landfills are allowed to grow on our coasts, which tourist will want to come back to the island? Improving our quality of life demands a better environment, to have clean drinking water and cleaner air. It is a health issue as well.
"Certainly, Alternattiva Demokratika has already achieved a lot through the European Parliament in these last ten years, and there are many examples of that. This is why a Green MEP can achieve as much as all other MEPs will."