Is this the Europe I voted for? Not quite

Unlike many Nationalists who were and still are little islanders at heart, I wanted Malta to join the EU not because of the "mitt miljun" (€100 million) but because I wanted my country to join a political union based on the firm respect for human rights, secular values, civil liberties, environmental protection and social rights.

My belief in the EU fairytale has been seriously undermined by the new Director-General for Migration, Stefano Manservisi, who declared that agreement between Italy and Libya through which migrants rescued on the high seas by Italy (and Malta?) are taken back by Libya is "perfectly in conformity with EU law.” It might conform with EU law but not with the spirit of the European project based on the vision of Europe as a beacon of human rights.

Not that this was ever the case. For national European governments have a history of collaboration with murderous third world regimes. But at least the Union is expected to show some moral high ground. In this case in a perfectly neo-colonialist way, Italy is farming out the expulsion of migrants to Libya, a pariah state which is not bound by the Geneva convention. It is an approach similar to that adopted by some western states in the war on terror; namely that of leaving despotic regimes to do the butchering.

Now we are told that Italy has the EU blessing. No wonder responsibility sharing seems to have evaporated from the agenda. That says a lot about the priorities of the right-wing Barroso commission. So instead of coming up with a reasonable system of responsibility sharing of asylum seekers in which everyone plays his part, Barroso's Europe is simply allowing Italy (and Malta?) to farm out their problems to a pariah state. And government and PN representatives are playing its part by ass-licking Libya all the time...

At least in Mintoff's days when the Nationalists used to express revulsion at Malta's close ties with Libya, we gained some bargaining power to snatch money from Italy and the UK by pampering Ghaddafi's ego. But what the hell are we getting now, except BP drilling on our doorstep?

But my disenchantment with Europe goes beyond the migration issue. The European Union has become the most uncharismatic institution in the world. Who the hell are Von Rompuy and Lady Ashton (pictured)? It is a pity that the EU is not led by someone of the stature of former German foreign Minister Joshcka Fiscer. By putting the spokes on Turkey's membership bid, the EU is becoming more and more an exclusive club with no ambition to reach out. The catastrophic result of this policy is Turkey drifting eastwards towards Iran.

An EU which stands for nothing except economic liberalisation has no soul. Surely many of these liberalisations pushed by the EU are perfectly justified and commendable for making the consumer king. But not enough emphasis is put on strengthening the social model which makes Europe a better place to live than the USA.

In the absence of new revenue flows, the blind obsession with deficit-cutting could erode this model. Not surprisingly the neo-liberals, the meek social democrats and the anachronistic far-left are all paving the way for the national chauvinists who would like the Union scrapped.

The EU was once a fact of life. Today its future is very uncertain. And that is not a good thing.