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The countries that decided to join the EU should be seeking to find the right solution to provide the necessary medicine for the aches and pains the proposed EU Constitution is creating and for the recession the European Union is passing through.
But Europe’s image is not granting much peace of mind.
During the month of February England was once again shocked with another anti-democratic move, when the Institute of Directors announced that they would not be campaigning for or against the EU Constitution.
The Director General stated it would be “too political” a move to take sides on the issue. The move came about just weeks after a poll amongst the members showed almost two to one against signing up to the Constitution. The poll found that 86 percent believed the Constitution would damage the economy because it would mean more EU regulation.
The Institute of Directors Director-General, Digby Jones, said last week that he would campaign on the side his membership tells him to.
Well, I thoroughly believe that a democratic membership organisation, such as the Institute of Directors, should respect its members’ views, and campaign against the EU Constitution, when such a great margin believe the EU Constitution would damage the economy.
So who is creating hurdles? Are these directors who decided to take a stand against the EU Constitution, politically placed directors who don’t recognise an A from a Z?
During the last week of February of this year the British government ruled against a decision of the ministers who sought the right moment to launch the ‘Yes’ vote in favour of the EU Constitution. The decisive day also happened to be VE day. The plan drew criticism from MPs and war veterans. Labour MP Ian Davidson, vice-chairman of the British-German All-Party Parliamentary Group, said, “They should be ashamed of trying to hijack VE Day” and described the government as “looking backwards not forwards.”
Frank Rosier of the Normandy Veterans’ Association, said, “It’s offensive. VE Day should be about remembering those boys who gave their lives.”
The Government’s plan to launch the ‘yes’ campaign on VE day was a pathetic, miserable attempt to make the ‘yes’ campaign look somehow patriotic. The reality is that there is nothing patriotic about giving the EU more powers over the EU states economies, foreign policy, justice and home affairs.
In Malta, our Prime Minister Dr Gonzi said he had to ratify the EU Constitution at all costs prior to the Maltese parliamentary summer holidays and that he will not wait until the Malta Labour Party comes up with their decisions.
My God. How are we to be treated, and what arrogance, I ask? Nevertheless, Dr Gonzi first has to read the 800-page Constitution to the citizens of Malta and we will have the chance to criticise and explain what is to be explained – especially all that is written between the lines.
What the EU Constitution means for Malta was certainly not explained to the Maltese during the EU referendum run-up and certainly not during the last general election campaign. The Where and When and How will be answered when the right time comes, not when Gonzi leaves Brussels’ soil to which Malta donated a good Lm9,000,000 for a shabby piece of property. Was it purchased so as to keep all, including Richard Cachia Caruana, away from Castille perhaps?
One must take note of the lies of the Nationalist-Verheugen teams throughout the referendum campaign. Malta needs a father, Verheugen said. What type of father was Verheugen talking about, when he is aware as a father that his children are not finding a job though academically qualified?
What is France within the EU? The EU Constitution as designed is France’s vision, so champagne glasses clinked to the success. Despite the Chirac Constitution success, the French jobless rate jumped to its highest level in five years in January, when 10 per cent of the workforce was unemployed, and economists foresaw little chance for a marked improvement this year.
A report issued by the national statistics institute INSEE stated that the last time France faced such double-digit joblessness was in February 2000. The unemployment rate was 9.9 percent in December. Other doses of bad news knocked the doors once more, when INSEE reported that business confidence slipped in February by one point to an indexed 104, reflecting “an economy that lacks dynamism.” Marc Touati, an analyst with Natexis Banques Populaires stated that “whether we like it or not, the French economy is ailing”. In January French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin planned to reduce unemployment “by around a percentage point” per year beginning this year, which should mean lowering it to nine percent by the end of December.
Prime Minister Raffarin and his government are already grappling with social tension, having unions calling strikes and demonstrations to press demands for jobs, maintaining the 35-hour week and for better pay.
Turning the spotlight onto Germany, the German government expects a further rise in the number of jobless in February. This was stated by Economy Minister Wolfgang Clement during a political debate. Two weeks ago the German Federal Labour Office said the number of jobless in Germany reached over 5 million last January, the highest level since World War Two. These are the where, when, how, why, what behind the Europe that has been created by the few for their benefit. Reading the above information which has been passed to me by foreign sources, one recognises that the European masters such as the Verheugen we all know, the Prodi or Barroso together with all the photogenic Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers, never made sure the business community pledged to work to ensure that all European citizens would find a job.
No, the most important matter is that you, European citizens are forced to pay all taxes, those statuary, but even other taxes imposed and invented by the crème de la crème, so as to assure what has to be assured for the benefit of the few.
Why is tax an assured thing, whilst a European employer has the possibility to move to another country or outside the EU to assure better earnings for the company and its shareholders through cheap labour?
Is this the state of play within Europe, promoting modern Asian slavery whilst creating European beggars?
The only solution left within every member state is to engage a European media owner such as Berlusconi, to launch a classic film namely “Mary Poppins” highlighting part of the musical where she says: “With a spoon full of sugar the medicine goes down, the medicine goes down, the medicine goes down”. If Maltese citizens believe another form of the Edward Fenech Adami PN and Verheugen team again, the Maltese would be accepting the assertive ruination of their freedom.
I have more and more to say and I will say it in the interest of Malta.
Angelo Farrugia is a Labour MP
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