“Gozo as a region needs exposure and commitment at all levels of public policy and parliamentary lobbying, both in Malta and in Europe.” Addressing a conference organised by the Gozo Business Chamber at Rabat, Gozo, Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant, said that Gozo is failing to overcome its problems of double insularity at both the Maltese and at the European levels.
He added that “whilst the new Government is rightly so striving to change this, the major change that must be attempted is to really give substance to the claim that Gozo should operate as a region, with its own structures of governance.”
If elected to the European Parliament, Alfred Sant said he would back all such efforts to the hilt. He pledged that if elected, he would cover Gozo’s affairs and challenges as of his first plenary speech to the European Parliament chamber.
Alfred Sant, who is contesting the European Parliament elections in May, said that up to now this has been hampered by incomprehension, not least at the level of the EU. For the latter, Gozo is too small an entity to merit attention as a region.
“A mechanism that exists in the Accession Treaty to put Gozo’s concerns forward when the EU budget is being drafted, was allowed to stay inoperative by the previous government. When in 2012, the Gonzi administration decided to invoke it, that administration had to admit in writing that over the previous ten years Gozo’s economic and social position had gone into a relative decline,” he said.
“This is confirmed by EU data on peripheral islands which show that Gozo has the poorest record on economic development and growth.Yet Gozo’s human and natural potential is big enough to create enough jobs and opportunities if given full scope. It will be necessary to drive home the idea that Gozo is a regional entity and should be treated as such at European level.”
“There has to be a corporate effort driven as much as possible by Gozo residents, between the central Government, the Gozo Ministry, and all strands of civil society, from business to social and sport organizations as covered by NGOs to drive forward projects with a regional framework. This would convince the EU even more that Gozo merits special attention,” Alfred Sant concluded.
Photograph by Lino Arrigo Azzopardi.