Disillusionment

The news that the Nationalist Party was awarded a contract worth over half a million Euros by the European Commission is a hot talking point amongst the Maltese public nearly as much as today's visit to the island by Queen Elizabeth. It is easy money for Gonzi's party - a press review was already prepared on a daily basis for internal party purposes before this contract was awarded. Now they simply repackage it and send it to the EU Representation in Malta every morning.

The problem with this contract is not just that it is awarded to a political party in a politically sensitive country. The Nationalist Party is itself the owner of a substantial portion of the Maltese printed and broadcast media which effectively means that it will now be monitoring its own media output on behalf of the EC. Even the most enthusiastic pro-Europeans are questioning the European Commission's sense of judgement in awarding this contract.

The EU Representation in Malta, headed by Joanna Drake - herself a former Nationalist Party parliamentary candidate, will now have to double the effort to bring the EU closer to the Maltese citizens . According to the latest Eurobarometer, Maltese public support for the European Union has gone down by 15 per cent since the referendum in 2003. The controversy surrounding this contract, which has already been raised in the European Parliament, will not enhance the Maltese public perception of European institutions.

Richard North, author of The Great Deception, follows on Prime Minister Gonzi's remarks to Reuters and says that "we have good company as far as general disillusionment with the EU goes". From the EU Referendum Blog:

..Prime minister Lawrence Gonzi says his country still stood by the sacrifices it made to qualify and was benefiting from millions of euros of annual aid but the joy of joining had yielded to a realisation that the proposed EU constitution was in limbo and that the budget was in deadlock.

Another factor which might even turn disillusionment into cynicism and even downright hostility is the extraordinary news that, according to Malta Today, Gonzi’s National Party has been awarded a major €565,000 contract from the EU for providing a daily press review to the Commission representation in Malta. Incredibly, the EU commission is claiming there is no "situation of conflict of interest", even though the press review is prepared by the in-house research bureau, which also provides the party with its own press review every day.

The contract won by Media.Link Communications, which is owned by the PN. Deputy prime minister Tonio Borg, is both a nominal shareholder and a director of the company. A direct UK equivalent would be the commission awarding the contract to a press company owned by the Labour Party, with John Prescott as a director...

The story as reported by Matthew Vella for MaltaToday; From Postform, Swedish Green MEP Carl Schlyter raises the issue in the European Parliament; Jurgen Balzan says that he had believed EU membership would eliminate incompetence and cronyism; Jacques Rene Zammit