Best in Europe, and all that hogwash
This week my mobile phone went berserk with messages from acquaintances close and far on the Prime Minister’s leaked letter to the President of the European Council on the supposed European failure in securing Malta’s medical supplies.
Reading the letter, I empathised with the Prime Minister in his description of a difficult situation affecting thousands of Maltese people in need of medical supplies. The points raised by Abela are indeed a matter of national concern. As a lawyer with some EU specialisation and as a political activist I, however, could not help but note two gross misconceptions in Abela’s stance.
The first relates to the fact that the EU does not actually have the powers needed to intervene in the marketing of pharmaceuticals. EU competences in the field are limited to manufacturing rules, hence stopping short of deciding what can legally be produced but not extending to how a product is marketed and delivered to the patient. The above is certainly a technical detail, but it is one that makes the Prime Minister’s request wrong in its address and tone. What we must push for is not for execution by the European Commission but for new legislative proposals addressing this hitherto uncovered territory. We must first give the European Commission the competence to act before we expect its action.
The second point relates to the Prime Minister’s complaints as to the negative impact of Brexit on medical supplies to Malta. The Brits voted in the most non-sensical way to exit the Union on 23 June of 2016. There were four year of negotiations for a withdrawal agreement where several member states including Ireland, Spain and Cyprus did secure adapted provisions for the future trade with the UK in categories of products or services critical to their economy and society. We had a seat in all the negotiations, at all levels, leading to the formal signature by Malta of the said Brexit agreement late last year. Where were the Prime Minister and his Ministers during those negotiations?
Is this another case of Malta waking up late to EU developments? Judging from the number of calls and emails reaching myself from the business community in the first weeks of January, I think I can safely assume that the ‘Brexit preparedeness’ efforts in Government were anything but prepared. In one case, an entrepreneur seeking information from a Government authority was told that they were ‘waiting for information from the UK’. Funny right? We are on the other side of that agreement. I would expect that we know what we signed!
The Brexit ‘unpreparedness’ is not a one-time incident. Every week I try to assist people who contact me with questions on how to position their business or other plans with regard to EU legislation. In most cases, I am their last resort. They would have tried all the relevant government services before that.
Last week for instance, I met representatives of a local company employing over 40 people in the manufacturing sector. Their company steadily grew from a basement workshop to become a high tech address for quality plastic products. The new single use plastics directive meant they had to readapt their business model. Reducing plastic from our seas is indeed a matter of public priority. No doubt about that. However, should not Maltese businesses like this company be made aware of how new EU developments will be affecting their operations in advance, before they need to decide on investments for the next years? That is just not happening in Malta right now. This particular company, like hundreds of others in a variety of sectors, get to learn of change affecting their market, at best months after the relevant decisions are taken in Brussels.
Industry elsewhere in Europe not only would know change is coming, in most cases they are behind the change being driven for them to continue to prosper. Malta is small and we know our resource limitations, but these are never a justification to giving up on playing a role in the world. What we miss in size and numbers needs to be made up through agility and the elimination of red tape.
Most importantly, let us shed off once and for all this ‘best in Europe’ idiocy that has infected so many protagonists on the labour party wagon. We can indeed become best in Europe if we recognise that we can learn from others through commitment and an open demeanour. We can pitch our case in Europe only if we are ready for serious efforts to understand facts and contexts. The Prime Minister’s strongly worded letter to his counterparts indicates a willingness to engage, but is characteristic of our ‘unpreparedness’ across the board. We need to do better.