[Watch] Report outlines EU's effect on Malta since accession

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A report issued by the Today Public Policy Institute (TPPI), entitled ‘Malta’s EU story’, says that 61% of Maltese think of themselves as European, in addition to being Maltese. This figure is higher than the European Union’s average of 54%, despite the EU’s popularity amongst Maltese having decreased in the last couple of years.

The study also suggests that Malta regards the EU as a community of like-minded states which have provided a coherent set of values, an incentive and a blueprint for development, and systems of benchmarking and ‘peer review’ that have helped the country to develop and prosper during difficult times.

The report was authored by Patrick Tabone, a former aide to foreign minister, later EU commissioner, Joe Borg. “I think the most profound change of all is on the human level,” Tabone told Malta Today at the launch of the report. “Students, teachers, officials, diplomats and many others have been exposed to new exchanges, new ideas, new ways of thinking and a new scale of doing things and that has made us less insular, more open and better geared to face the challenges of an ever-changing world.”

“Economically, we have acquired a new resilience that we did not have before and that is a result of wide-ranging reforms in a number of sectors and also of the transformation of our economy to one that is more based on services,” he said. “We have managed to attract significant foreign direct investment and flows of European funds and we’ve invested them wisely.”

Tabone said that in the 10 years since Malta became a member of the EU, the country has become “more self-assured”, with a “clearer sense of direction and a clearer set of political values”. This, according to Tabone, could help Malta play a more dynamic and active role on the international stage.

“A few years down the line, we could be making the transition from being a net recipient of the EU budget to becoming a contributor,” he said. “This will serve as a natural reflection of our growing prosperity.”

“It’s important that we continue to keep our economy ahead of the curve.”

And what of the challenges which Malta is likely to face in the near future, Malta Today asked Tabone. “The EU has many big challenges itself at the moment, in terms of its perceived democratic deficit and the result of the last election showed the dissatisfaction (of the people) with the direction of the EU,” he said. “So far, European solidarity has manifested itself in economic and financial terms but we do need to try and get that solidarity shown in different ways as well.”

“On the environmental side, I think we’ve taken very important first steps but there is so much more left to do,” he said. “In fact, the report concludes that the environment is still in the balance and there is a lot more to be done.”

The report reads that “whilst other EU economies, especially in the Mediterranean, have stalled or contracted, we have continued to grow,” it reads, adding that Malta could have faced “catastrophic: consequences had the country faced the economic crisis of 2008-09 with its “small and vulnerable national currency”.

Furthermore, it outlines that Malta, as an EU member state, must deal with the problems of the European Union as a whole with these problems looking “more numerous and more serious” today than they did in the past.

“Malta will also have its own particular challenges to face,” it says. “It will need to continue weaning itself off European Union funds as it becomes more prosperous… and it will need to continue pushing for its partners to share fairly the burden it currently bears as a frontline state along a major migratory route from North Africa and the Middle East towards Europe.”