Endorsing Claudette Abela Baldacchino

It is a matter of public knowledge that come next Saturday my first preference vote for the European parliamentary elections will go to Claudette Abela Baldacchino.

My vote for Claudette is one based on conviction. It is based on the knowledge that Claudette is one of the more experienced and competent candidates standing in these elections.

Moreover, Claudette is a person who says what she believes and believes what she says. Gimmicks are not part of Claudette's style of doing politics.

Throughout this campaign Claudette has consistently shown her mettle. She has not shied away from taking on difficult issues, such as the need to tackle social inequality; of the pain and suffering of broken families and the need for a final decision on the question of divorce; on the need to ensure that adequate health services and recource to medical treatment remain available to all irrespective of financial ability. In this respect, Claudette has on innumerable occassions gone one record stating that 'health is not for sale' and has even pledged that as an MEP she would be joining the MEPs Against Cancer political group within the European Parliament.

Claudette has also stood her ground in denouncing the failures of Prime Minister Gonzi and his government and the Nationalist representatives within the European institutions. By highlighting the need for Malta to have a stronger voice in Europe, she has stressed the point that Malta and its people are no second class citizens, and that the European Union institutions need to quickly realise that we will not accept being treated any less than other people in Europe. A clear case in point in this regard has been the debacle about illegal migration, with Gonzi & co having to accept an agreement for voluntary burden sharing when it was clear from the start that such an undertaking would remain a dead letter.

I have witnessed Claudette's tireless efforts in striving for the causes she believes in for the best party of twenty years. Whether it was within the Labour Party structures, at local council levels, or in the Committee of the Regions of the European Union (COR), Claudette has always manifested courage and determination in seeking to accomplish the tasks at hand. The esteem that she enjoys by her fellow members of this European institution are manifested by the faith shown in her when she was asked to pilot two very important policy reports on social issues through the COR, and to coordinate the Social Chapter for the Party of European Socialists' electoral manifesto.

When Claudette speaks of the need for a Social Europe she does so because she understands that the way that the European Union is presently governed is driving us into a wall. It is a political philosophy that is taking us deeper and deeper into an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions. Claudette firmly believes that a change in direction for Europe (and Malta) is desperately needed.

Claudette is on record stating that it is unacceptable that Europe attempts to find solutions to the economic mess it finds itself in by merely focusing on the financial aspects. Such a strategy would indeed by myopic and destined to fail. The fact is that the economic and the social aspects are intimately interrelated, and there can be no sustainable long-term solution unless both factors are adequately taken into account.

I fully concur with Claudette when she states that in the coming years those of us on the Left who hold worker's rights at heart need to be even more vigilant to ensure that all attempts to reduce - if not do away completely with - those rights that workers have gained, with so much effort and sacrifices throughout the years, are nipped in the bud.

The message that Claudette is sending is very clear. Europe cannot solve its problems at the expense of workers and their families. On the contrary, it is only by safeguarding workers rights and striving for more and better jobs that the European economy can recover and experience long-term sustainable growth.

For Claudette, the bottom line remains that the European model is one historically based on the notion of striving to consistently improve the standard of living of persons. I agree with Claudette that we cannot allow those with a sinister agenda to turn back the clock in their attempt to reduce workers to mere cogs in an industrial machine. Our commitment to workers and their families is what makes us Socialists in the end.