Juncker’s junket’s coming to town

On Wednesday, the entire European Commission is travelling to Malta to mark the beginning of the sixmonth Maltese Presidency of the European Council.

Although for us this is a memorable event, seeing it is the first time Malta has had the presidency, for the Commission it is rather routine. At the beginning of each presidency, they all troop to the country holding the presidency to express the solidarity – so the spiel goes – of the European institutions with the member state and perhaps to sample the cuisine.

It will be a predominantly ceremonial event, starting quite early with the visit by JeanClaude Juncker, the president of the Commission, to the President at San Anton, with the President carrying out an official visit to Brussels as from today week.

I say it will be predominantly ceremonial because the dossiers are all ready: Malta has defined its priorities for the Presidency, just as the Commission, the European Parliament and the other institutions have drawn up theirs.

All these are wish-lists, because Malta’s real task is to mediate between the member states and between the member states and the institutions, and the wish-lists of the member states are not only very divergent from each other but also quite divergent from the Commission’s.

The Commission itself would have other subjects to discuss, especially Brexit and the new Trump presidency, but they can discuss such subjects in Brussels without fear of being overheard.

For the Commission visit will also be accompanied by an invasion of journalists from all over the EU and maybe from outside it as well. We have already had requests from some of these for our assessment of the economic and political situation of Malta.

I don’t know if this is happening in Malta but there is a longstanding tradition that the Brussels press corps visits the country at the beginning of the Presidency. Some years ago, I was inserted into this group and we all went to Dublin at the beginning of the Irish Presidency and had meetings with the most significant ministers in the Irish Cabinet who explained to us the main lines of the Irish situation, with the country then coming out from the depths of the recession. (We also had a very enjoyable night out at the Guinness Brewery and its restaurant on top.)

So, Malta will be on show this week, and not just for its historical sites and tourist visits but also for the political context. As happened with the Martin Schultz visit on the Kuncizzjoni, (8 December), there is a unanimity with regard to the EU and the main themes, but then scratch a little, and there is a deep divide among the people, as anyone who follows the news, the websites, the blogs, the papers, can see.

This cannot be papered over just because Juncker and his Commission are visiting. On the contrary, the Commission – coming from the political families in Europe – are no doubt kept abreast of what is going on from their sources in Malta.

There are far too many issues that have not been tackled and that go counter to the EU spirit. But the Commission and, at its back, its collective memory, has its own ways and means of tackling such issues, from the time when Austria chose Kurt Waldheim as its president, and then Jorge Haider, to tackling Hungary’s Viktor Orban, down to Theresa May.

For all the pomp and circumstance on Wednesday, the EU is still in a deep crisis, although the economic crisis seems to be lifting, unemployment is on the decrease and a new spirit is slowly coming in. But the issues raised by Brexit (regardless of the impact this is already having on the British economy) and the xenophobic tidal wave that is propagated by the eurosceptics in key countries such as France and Germany which both have elections this year, as well as the weakness of countries such as Italy, threaten the EU fabric.

The euro has survived when many said it was doomed, and it may reach parity with the dollar within weeks. Its institution has been strengthened by the banking arm, but the ECB is still based on fighting inflation and keeping to the straight and narrow on deficits and debts.

Malta, with its admirable track record on stimulating growth (having said which, I have my own doubts on the matter that I will be expounding at a later stage) can perhaps teach the Commission a thing or two. And while the Commission is (unjustly in my opinion) pushing Malta to spearhead the repatriation of a few individuals whose only blame is that they were born in a country called Mali, the Commission would do well to find the time to visit some schools and see how Maltese children are being educated along with children of many other nationalities with no discrimination at all.

For, you see, the Malta that will be on show this week is not just the product of its government’s efforts (however much the government may think it is) but the product of the interaction between all its citizens.