Medical Cannabis, Gender Quotas, And Prosperity For Africa: Here’s What Malta’s MEP Candidates Spoke About At The University Debate
Gathered in a room that seemed to be filled more with the political class than the actual class of students, nine MEPs sat down to chat about their policies for the upcoming elections. And though the students seemed somewhat lacking in numbers, the conversation that sparked the debate was informed, inclusive and readily-armed.
The Malta Student International Relations Student Association (MIRSA) got their heads together to herd nine of the MEP candidates in a room for a fruitful debate on their pre-election mandates.
The conversation mainly focused on two key topics: immigration and climate change. And this makes sense; these are two of the most, if not the most, contentious issues within the EU itself.
“I found it interesting, in the sense it was a mature conversation,” a MIRSA representative told Lovin Malta. “And there were a few people who attended, considering that we are a small organisation.”
“Immigration is not only a humanitarian crisis but a security crisis; the EU is fragmented for it” – Frank Psaila
Most candidates had immigration on their minds as they highlighted the need for the EU to better combat the fact that tens of thousands of people are dying in the Meditteranean as they try to reach Europe’s shores.
Mina Tolu made it a point to say that we should not be referring to it as a “crisis”, since it means that it would get dealt with in a particular way.
Cauchi Inglott was specifically asked about the topic given his extensive knowledge on the topic (he was a colonel of the European Action Service, and he even took up other positions in the armed forces which led him to have to deal with the immigration issue). He said that there are no relevant policies in place to regulate the issue.
He said that if immigration policy fails, then the entire European project fails. And watching MEP candidates nod confidently to this statement made it all the more clear why exactly we should be talking about immigration policies.
“Immigration is a colonial problem,” Carmen Cacopardo stated. Most of the MEPs seemed to agree that in order to properly deal with the issue, it is crucial that development in Africa is a primary concern for Europe. Or as Robert Micallef put it: “Africa is the continent of the future.”
“As the more time passes, the more I realize how important the environment is to European citizens” – Miriam Dalli
Climate change was the other issue that was spoken about by all. There’s a need to lower CO2 emissions, a need to get the Member States to seriously comply with directives concerning the environment (and public health was mentioned here also), and the need to get everyone in all levels of society to agree on environmental laws and agreements.
Because of her work on the carbon emissions report, Miriam Dalli spoke extensively about the need to marry the environment and the economy. These are interlinked because, through economic innovations, new approaches can be discovered that are more sustainable and helpful for the environment.
Roberta Metsola agreed that education is crucial here. It is not only the role of the EU to give funds, but to also be able to ensure that opportunities are available to and attainable by all. So she suggested that there should be more courses available to youths to suit these needs.
“At the European level, it needs to be more social and social protection needs to be provided to all,” – former Labour Party leader Alfred Sant
Among all, there was recognition of the fear of the far-right. They didn’t all agree (finally, a disagreement among the panel) on the reasons for the passionate drive towards far-right parties in Europe, though issues like immigration did pop up.
The ex-colonel Cauchi Inglott pointed out that “the European Union are at a junction where there’s a chance that the project might fail. This is the result of short-term solutions and immediate responses.”
Frank Psaila referred to the Yellow Jacket protestors in France, making the claim that when workers protest, issues are resolved immediately. And when this happens, short-term plans do not effectively deal with the main issues.
“We need to triple Erasmus funds” – Francis Zammit Dimech
The candidates brought up some of the issues that they themselves found most important. For Francis Zammit Dimech, it was more money to the students (he said to a room sparsely populated with students).
Mina Tolu, of course, spoke as a candidate who would represent LGBTI+ Maltese and Gozitan citizens. A hot topic from the side of the audience was gender quotas, which sparked a debate on misogyny and meritocracy. Should we elect people based on their credentials? But as Tolu pointed out, the term ‘meritocracy’ is wrong because it does not consider the specific privileges of certain people. So should we instead introduce quotas to overcome these inaccuracies?
This followed up to a conversation on the donkey vote, which Frank Psaila wasn’t a fan of. Clearly.
Miriam Dalli spoke about the importance of medical cannabis (once again, to a room of students). And there was no debate there, just general agreement by all on my side of the room that it wasn’t a bad idea.