Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-16-Speech-3-147"
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"en.20000216.9.3-147"2
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"Mr President, Malta and Cyprus are very different from the countries of mainland Europe. The Maltese in particular have been very good at surviving in hostile geographical and geopolitical environments. Their success has relied in great part on their enterprise, their dynamism and their flexibility. Malta has vibrant light and heavy industry, growing financial services, good agriculture, magnificent tourism and an amazing range of employment opportunities, all of this on an island virtually barren of natural resources. I am certain, therefore, that an island such as Malta, with its population of 340 000 cannot accommodate the rigidities of the economic and legal structures of the mainland which has a population a thousand times greater.
Thus, when I look at this proposed instrument I do not see a measure to bring two peoples into the fold of Mother Europe. The situation is more akin to a black hole in space, sucking in masses so powerfully that not even light escapes. We should not be bribing these island peoples to cooperate in their own destruction, giving them money to absorb laws which are as alien to their culture as a black hole is to Mother Earth. The EU should leave Cyprus and Malta alone. It seems to me that the only people in Malta that want this are the political class, and I shall be keeping my fingers crossed that once again the Maltese people are the winners."@en1
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