Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1499757
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 MAY 2023 OPINION 11 Let's face it, folks: how many articles do you think I can possibly write, about a Prime Minister who keeps telling us all to 'look forward to a beautiful future' – or some other, equally mindless platitude - while sailing off towards the Sicilian sunset, in his own, beautiful (and ultra-expensive) 'superyacht'? How did the rest of Malta re- act, though, to the news that – as of next year, please note – government will be availing of the latest in 'high-tech, sur- veillance software', to... erm... simply 'spy on us all', with total impunity? I'm afraid I can't actually that question for you, because – let's face it – there hasn't been any reaction at all, has there? Or at least: none that I myself have been able to (even acci- dentally) stumble upon, in a whole week's worth of scan- ning the local news... By the same token, then: I suspect that Clyde Caruana's latest earth-shattering revela- tion, will similarly be ignored [Note: the news only came out this morning]... and I suppose it's just as well, too: because what the Finance Minister seems to be predicting, this time round, is... not just the 'end of Malta', as a we all know it: but the 'end of Malta'... IN ITS TOTALITY! And in case you think I'm ex- aggerating, just a teenie-wee- nie bit: well... to be honest, perhaps I am. But tell you what: take a look for yourselves, and see what you think. "[On Friday 19 May] Finance minister Clyde Caruana told Malta's financial services lobby that European political inte- gration is deepening in the face of the Russian war in Ukraine, with a direct impact on bank- ing and taxation reform which the island must be prepared to align itself with. "[...] Caruana said the ef- fects of the Russian invasion in Ukraine had changed the European frame of mind, and that it was now seeking fur- ther enlargement to secure its borders, as well as to emerge as a global player than can face Chinese supremacy. "[...] Until recently everyone made it difficult for the EU to get things done... now that at- titude has changed radically. By the end of the decade, the Union will have rediscovered its identity and will for further political integration." "By 2030 the EU will move to further powers and more harmonisation – it will mean moving away from unanimity on rules, and to further quali- fied majority voting." Now: as usual, I've left myself with too little space, to out- line exactly WHY these pro- nouncements add up to (what I consider, anyway) the equiv- alent of a 'death sentence', for the 'sovereign island nation state, formerly known as The Republic of Malta'. (and with the date of execution already set, too! "By 2030...") So for now, all I'll say is that: This 'unanimity principle' (that Clyde Caruana so casually informs us is soon to be 'con- signed to the dustbin of Eu- ropean history) is actually the only thing that currently pro- tects this tiny country of ours – which, may I remind you all, has the same average popula- tion, as a 'medium-sized town in rural France' – from what British political philosopher John Stuart Mill once famously defined as 'The Tyranny of the Majority' (and which Joseph Heller, in Catch-22, separately defines as Milo Minderbind- er's second 'law of economics': 'You have the right to do unto others, that which they cannot prevent you from doing'...) So to just remove it from the equation altogether, at the stroke of a pen – as Clyde Caruana himself predicts will happen, inevitably, in just sev- en years' time – is also to re- move the only measure that prevents this country from being reduced to a mere 'vas- sal-state', of a conglomerate of much larger, more influential countries that – much like Hal 900, in '2001: A Space Odys- sey' – can simply 'unplug us out of existence', any time they choose... Meanwhile, the same 'una- nimity principle' is also en- trenched in the Accession Treaty that Malta signed, when actually joining the EU in 2004. And as far as I am aware: THAT – or at least, its immediate successor, the Lis- bon Treaty – remains the on- ly thing that determines the 'terms and conditions' of our contractual obligations, as an EU member state. The 'treaties we signed'... and NOT the 'sporadic amend- ments to those treaties', that are currently being discussed - behind our backs – in the Eu- ropean Parliament, or within the Commission, or at 'Coun- cil of Ministers' level (without, I might add, any correspond- ing talk of a 'referendum', to actually approve those chang- es, when the time comes). I could go on, of course: but in a nutshell, what Clyde Caruana is telling us, this time round, is that: by 2030, the EU will have morphed into a single, 'super- power' (with military ambi- tions to rival both China, and Russia, no less)... ... and while I will certain- ly not be the one to get in the way, of any 'fight' that the EU wants to 'pick', with either of those two countries (I'm not 'big' or 'strong' enough for any of that, remember?)... ... I do think, under the cir- cumstances, that it's high time we at least started asking our- selves a few serious questions: about, say, whether this vision of 'further European political integration', actually coincides with the 'beautiful future' we were all once promised, in 2004. Just saying, that's all... Clyde Caruana believes the effects of the Russian invasion in Ukraine had changed the European frame of mind