2 - 8 August 2001

EU membership should be a means to an end – Arnold Cassola

by Ivan Brincat

European Union membership presents an opportunity for the country to upgrade its poor environmental standards and improve the quality of life. “Malta’s application for EU membership should be a means to an end. Alternattiva – The Green party is the real party which is pro-EU membership,” Arnold Cassola, the secretary general of the European Greens told The Malta Business Weekly in an interview.
Dr Cassola said that if membership just becomes an end and stops there without any effort being made to improve the standards in Malta then a huge opportunity would have been lost. “EU membership must bring about a
better quality of life and improve the standard of living, the air we breathe, the quality of our food among others,” Dr Cassola said.
The result of the Irish referendum seems to have increased the commitment of the European Union towards enlargement.
Dr Cassola said the probability is that countries could join in 30 months’ time, that is by 1 January 2004 since the EU has stated that new member States will be able to take part in the June 2004 European Parliament elections.
“Theoretically Malta could be a member before the next election since the last possible date for the election is January 2004. However, it is unlikely that there will be an election campaign during the Christmas
period,” Dr Cassola said.
He believes that a decision will therefore have to be taken in the second half of 2003. “By then, negotiations should have been concluded and countries would have decided whether they are going to join or not.”
Dr Cassola therefore believes the next election is crucial since the winner will be presented with a fait accompli – that is to join or not to join. “There will be no space for negotiating further with the European Union because there would be no time prior to enlargement.”
He said that Malta’s reputation with regards to its application to join the European Union is far from rosy. “We are not considered to be
reliable with regards to whether we want to join or not. But this is quite understandable. We have applied, frozen our application, reactiv-ated it again and now there are signals that there could be a fourth possible change again if Labour wins the next election.”
Dr Cassola said that when Malta is
mentioned in the European Commission, there is always a big question mark on whether Malta will join or not. “But it is a natural reaction. If someone changes his mind three times, you start to doubt that person so we cannot blame them for not being sure about us.”
Negotiations have now entered a more delicate phase and chapters are now taking more time to be closed.
He said the agriculture position paper has not yet been presented to the European Union. “This chapter is very sensitive for Malta.”
Dr Cassola said that as Alternattiva, they had been calling on government to come up with a rural development plan in order to able to come up with projects. “At present, as things are, the EU cannot assess a number of things regarding Malta’s agriculture. Moreover, Malta has not yet defined what is agricultural land and which are the agricultural areas.”
He believes there are a lot of flows in Malta’s position on agriculture. “The matter is further complicated by the fact that there are few experts involved in the field and the people themselves, that is the cooperatives and farmers are not being consulted. You cannot just present them with a fait accompli. The government should be open enough to listen to their problems and start
planning out what to do after.” Alternattiva is pushing for the introduction of organic farming in Malta.
Dr Cassola said they believed in niche markets but added that organic farming would not happen overnight. A field in the European Union to be certified for organic farming has to be free of chemicals for 10 years.
He said there was intermediate certification of fields being chemical-free for three years. “But that would force farmers not to work their land for three years. Therefore, aid must be given to farmers whose areas have been
earmarked for organic farming. Obviously a substantial area would have to be found for such farming since one cannot work organically a field and have pesticides in a field close by.”
Another tricky area for the Maltese greens is agriculture. “We want the transition periods in this field to be the shortest possible. We do not want the Maltese authorities to take advantage of these transition periods to postpone the concrete problems which exist. Among the most problematic areas are waste disposal and the treatment of sewage.” What is positive in this field, Dr Cassola said, is that people are now talking and admitting there is a problem.
“We now have to spend Lm80m to clean up Maghtab. The expense would have been less had we tackled the matter before. The sewage plants will only be ready in 2005 and these cost money. We believe the government should try to get what aid it can in order to come up with projects to treat solid waste.”
He said it was a fact that the EU grants funds to its members for the environment. “It should not be the sole reason why Malta should join but it is a very good reason. The MLP does not want full membership, therefore it will not be eligible for funds. One question worth asking the MLP leadership is from where the money is going to come from to tackle these problems. Considering that the MLP is stating that it will not increase taxes or introduce new ones, where the funds will come from is a mystery for us.”
The European Greens secretary general who is currently in Malta was asked how the government could come up with the money considering the financial problems the country is facing.
Dr Cassola said the economic situation was well known and we have been in this situation under three governments so no one can cry wolf.
“There is a choice to make. Do we want to swim in polluted waters? Do we want to breath foul air with all the health problems it entails? Do we want to continue piling up mountains of rubbish?”
He said that maintaining the status quo was still a financial drain on the country and its health budget. “It is true that a big outlay of capital is required. However, it is better to spend it on a clean-up and prevention than on cure (medicine, sick-leave, hospitals). We already have a lot of people with skin and ear infections and respiratory problems. These are a concrete example of the problems we face.”
Dr Cassola said it was pitiful that a country which had the sea as its only “recreational resource” had 28 kilometres of coastline not accessible due to different types of pollution in the sea.
“We also have to be careful about tourism since this is a major source of income for our country. There is obviously a link between the environment, clean seas, clean beaches and tourism. We cannot have a laissez faire approach,” he said.
Alternattiva has been very effective recently in raising issues in the European Parliament and even in the Italian Parliament. “My post as secretary general of the European Greens obviously helps. Recently we managed to propose eight amendments to a report on Malta presented by the rapporteur on Malta, Ursula Stenzel, of which seven were accepted. These will now be incorporated in the final report to be presented in plenary session after the summer recess.”
AD has also raised the tuna issue both with experts in the field at the European Parliament and also through the Italian Greens in the Italian Parliament.
“The Italian Greens raised the issue in the Italian Parliament in favour of Maltese fishermen since they asked for the removal of purse seining fishing. They asked for a reasonable solution and called on the government to guarantee the safety of Maltese and Italian fishermen,” Dr Cassola said.
He said the party had worked with the French Greens on the Erika issue and the German Greens when Lowenbrau wanted to build their factory in Malta on the land where the Meridiana vineyard in Ta’ Qali is today.