Bullying the EU budget?

Former Time Magazine correspondent Roland Flamini at one point served as head of Malta's National Broadcasting. He is now the Chief International Correspondent of United Press International. In this report he discusses the budgetary dispute between the Maltese government and the European Union and says that 'the Maltese are not the only newcomers to be wondering what they have let themselves in for' From yesterday's Washington Times:

Newspapers on the Mediterranean island of Malta are a lively lot, but no extent of editorial ingenuity can brighten EU-speak, the organization's bureaucratic terminology. Take, for example, this week's front-page headlines: "PM optimistic about Objective One status issue," said one leading paper.

The term sounds like science fiction, but it refers to an EU member country's eligibility for top funding from the community budget. Malta (pop: 380,000) was one of the 10 countries to join the European Union on May 1, 2004, and the issue is the first test of the tiny island's relationship with Brussels. In a broader sense it also sends a message to the other newcomers that the promised crock of gold at the end of the EU rainbow can sometimes be an illusion.

Valletta's dispute with the Eurocrats centers on the EU 2007-2013 budget -- the first for the island as an EU member -- and it has put a damper on public enthusiasm for EU membership. Alfred Sant, leader of the opposition Malta Labor Party, charged that the Nationalist government had "fooled" the country into backing membership. But an official in the historic Maltese capital said privately last week that if anyone was fooled it was the government. He blamed Guenther Verheugen, the EU commissioner who heads enlargement negotiations, for overselling the benefits of membership to the 10 aspirants and glossing over the small print in the accession agreement.

The problem for Malta is that good news has become bad. Brussels determined that between 2000-2002 Malta's gross national product rose above 75 percent of the EU average, which could make the island a net contributor instead of a recipient of community funds. The Maltese government argues Brussels is looking at the wrong years: the more typical -- and therefore more realistic -- financial position is reflected in the 2001-2003 figures. It is trying to get the European Union to change its assessment.

Malta's Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi was in Brussels this week to lobby for the change. He is said to have told European Union officials that Malta's position in relation to the EU's GDP average improved not because there has been real economic growth (the Maltese government says the differential is 0.9 percent) but rather because the economies of other new member countries have brought the average down. Malta needs the money to help improve its quality of life -- one of the main reasons why the island sought EU membership in the first place, Gonzi said. For example, badly rutted roads are waiting for an influx of EU financing to fund infrastructure improvements.

The optimistic view is that a compromise will eventually emerge, in typical EU fashion. As its last resort, of course, Malta, the smallest member of the 25-nation European Union, has the same power as the largest member to veto the budget. Following Gonzi's first meetings in Brussels, the English language Malta Independent newspaper reported from the Belgian capital that, "The unthinkable -- vetoing the Budget -- suddenly became less so, although Dr. Gonzi refused even to speak about that possibility."

It would not look good for Malta to be seen bullying the EU budget less than a year after joining. But the Maltese are not the only newcomers to be wondering what they have let themselves in for.

Roland Flamini profile

The Budget of the European Union