Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/702141
25 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 JULY 2016 Opinion the way a political party as gargantuan as Labour can simply turn around and disown all its past convictions at the bat of an eyelid… anything is possible, really. In any case: the above was just one aspect of the somewhat bizarre effect Brexit has had on Malta's perceptions of the EU. There were others. For instance: it is evident from the near-unanimity of local reactions – anger, dismay, a backlash against the entire democratic process, etc. – that a country which joined the EU by a mere whisker in 2003, is now probably the most Europhile of the 27 member states. It is not just George Vella who has evidently forgotten all his past views on Europe… it is also the 48% that voted 'No'. What caused this remarkable change in public attitude? Among enlargement countries, anti-EU sentiment was highest by far in Malta in 2004. Today, it is the lowest. That is in itself an extraordinary political phenomenon by any standard. This is where things start to get interesting. In arguments with the few dissenting voices here and there, most qualif y their support for the EU in terms of Malta's economic progress: record employment figures, record growth rates, record increase to national GDP, etc. There is little point in disputing the figures in themselves… though one could (and some do) question the causality/correlation with EU membership. I myself wouldn't bother, though: I see a clear correlation between economic growth and Malta's status as an EU member state. It can be summed up in one word: immigration. Strangely – for a country which only ever uses the word as an expletive – Malta's economic miracle can in part be pinned down to a plethora of small, medium and large enterprises that have relocated here thanks to the freedom of movement allowed under EU regulations. It may not have been the invasion of Sicilian hairdressers predicted by Labour 12 years ago… (though then again it might: I only cut my hair once every three years, so how would I know?). But restaurateurs from all over Italy? Handymen, builders, plumbers and electricians from all over Eastern Europe? And that scarcely noticeable contingent of betting agencies, I-gaming industries and financial services that have been quietly pumping millions into Malta's GDP these last few years? Those are among the contributors to the success of Malta as an EU member state. Naturally you could add all sorts of other categories to the list. (Like strippers and lap- dancers, for instance. You don't want to leave out strippers and lap-dancers, just because their contribution to GDP is about as microscopic as their G-strings… ) But how did Malta succeed in attracting all this foreign investment, where other countries failed? Well, this is what makes it so interesting. Taken as a long-term vision, the 'European project' foresees the gradual harmonisation of internal European rules and regulations governing, inter alia, taxation. Malta is one of a minority of EU member states to vehemently oppose fiscal harmonisation, because it (rightly) construes that as a threat to its competitiveness in attracting shady industries like the I-gaming sector. This minority has incidentally just got a lot smaller with the loss of the UK; and this, too, has fuelled the backlash against Brexit and its supporters. How dare the British leave us in the lurch like this? How dare she betray us, in our perpetual war against transparency and fiscal fairness across Europe? What this effectively implies is that Malta's 'success' as an EU member state actually owes quite a lot to Malta's basic disregard for the same 'values' that the EU is supposedly built on. If we have prospered where others have suffered, it is partly because we insist on retaining a pre-EU accession outlook on all the things which help us make money: like adjusting our tax rates to attract investment (at the expense of other EU member states, naturally). On every other issue – the environment, civil rights, human rights – oh, on those we're as European as the lot of them. Even more, in fact. But when it comes to pounds, euros and centimes … the old 'medulla oblongata' kicks in, and we instantly fall back on our old, primal money- grabbing instincts. So we find ourselves resisting harmonisation and greater European integration (two major current aims of the EU) tooth and nail… to retain the level of tax sovereignty usually associated with non-EU member states. Even without factoring the basic irony in all this – i.e., the fact that most of those bashing Brexit today were just as incensed by Panamagate, which revolves around precisely the same tax-incentivisation issue – there is an obvious question to be asked. What happens when our luck finally runs out, and the EU clamps down on all the loopholes that made our 'economic miracle' possible in the first place? Who will we blame then? I know: Brexit! It's all the fault of those pesky, duplicitous Brits… just like the good old days. Labour's 'Partnership' plan was almost indistinguishable from the one floated more recently by Farage, Johnson and the rest of the "irresponsible" Brexiters What would have happened had Labour won the 2003 referendum? Would Muscat now describe the EU as the 'best thing since sliced bread'…. Friendly exchange: David Cameron and Joseph Muscat at an EU council meeting