I suppose we should be grateful that the Prime Minister has moved on from the Alfred Sant bandwagon of trying to convince us that all EU membership would bring us would be Sicilian hairdressers. No surprises there, we have become quite used to these turnabouts from the leader of the Labour Party.

It is easy to forget just how close to the brink they took us. It seems like a lifetime ago that we would hear Sant’s mouthpiece, Muscat, rail against Europeans and argue that we were simply not good enough to compete as equals. They have since tried to reinvent themselves, even admitting their hindsight wisdom. But those of us whose political forma mentis was sculpted then, will always recognise them for who they are.

The EU debate was tough, but it was personal. I knew then, as I know now, that I was as much from Gżira, as much Maltese and as much a European, none of which are mutually exclusive.

My journey in politics was not typical.

When I first stood for election in 2004, I had no family links to politics: a young woman in an old man’s world, with no money, or backing. But then as now, I had ideas, an appetite for change and a determination to stand up to be counted. It took almost 10 years but in 2013, I was elected as one of Malta and Gozo’s first female MEPs.

My passion and my resolve have not waned. My belief that politics must be rooted in values has not been watered down. I am as hungry for change as I have ever been, a change that needs to be based on principle.

I have always stood unashamedly for the politics of the centre, for the triumph of moderation over extremism, for politics based on truth, justice and correctness.

That is the face of Malta and Gozo I fight to represent.

Take corruption. I stand against it – always and everywhere. I want to see politics become a clean arena where we, who represent you, are held to the highest standards of accountability.

Take justice. I will never stop fighting for the rule of law to prevail. I will never stop seeking justice for the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia and her stories. I will never accept that our identity is given away freely as a pull-out in the cheap passports Muscat is selling.

Take the environment. I will never stop demanding respect for our natural, urban and historical heritage, nor will I ever stop doing my duty in striving to leave Malta a better place than my generation found it.

Take migration. You will never see me appeal to the very loud, very real albeit unrealistic, xenophobic element in our society. My position has always been clear – a balanced one that takes into consideration legitimate concerns, and our moral obligations in putting humanity first in equal measure.

We must be fair with those in need of protection, firm with those who do not, and harsh with those who seek to exploit the most vulnerable.

This has not changed, nor will it ever.

Here I stand. For the centre. Proudly.

The Labour Party will never stop resorting to calling me a traitor for calling them out on their wrongdoing. Their strategy is clear. They would like nothing better than to silence the strong voice we have in Europe, pushing an agenda that suits best those whose ideals have long been compromised.

We cannot let that happen. Not now. Not with so much at stake.

A few people may choose to stay home on election day. Whether you vote or not, the electoral machine will move on. Six people will be elected anyhow. Not voting would simply mean that you would allow others to choose your representatives for you. And they will.

I am once again standing up to ask for the confirmation of your trust, but there is more than just my personal seat at stake. This election is about sending a message. It is about reaffirming that the politics of the centre, of moderation, of studied balance, still belong in our political circle – and that this place on the political spectrum needs to be consolidated and strengthened.

Either we stand up, or we watch from the fringes while the extremists, the racists and the criminals become our representatives in the European Parliament for the next five years, for all the world to measure us by.

MEP Metsola who has made the protection of the environment central to her work as a representative of Malta and Gozo in the European Parliament, said “single-use plastics are clogging our seas, killing our marine life and causing irreparable damage to Malta and Gozo’s natural environment.”

MEP Metsola hailed the EU wide-ban on single-use plastic products like non-biodegradable straws & polystyrene cups that will finally come into force by 2021, saying “worrying statistics show us that close to 75% of the marine litter in the world’s oceans is plastic. Malta and Gozo are no different. Most of it is single-use, unbiodegradable, plastic that remains in our eco-systems for centuries, harming our health, choking our fish and throttling our turtles. It simply cannot continue at the current rate. It is time for change – and it’s not only plastics, it’s our entire waste management system that needs updating and enforcing.”

MEP Metsola said that “changing the way we deal with waste and the way we devour harmful, instantly-throw away goods is not easy. Nor is it something that can be changed overnight. But there are a few simple steps that we can all take to reduce the impact on our environment. The first, and one of the most problematic, is limiting or eliminating our inexplicable love affair with single-use plastic containers and packaging. “

MEP Metsola said that “the impact of small decisions can be enormous. Imagine if instead of the usual plastic bags we still see everywhere, we use boxes or cloth; or if we stopped purchasing products covered in excessive, unnecessary, plastic packaging; or if instead of throwing away a coffee cup every time we have a hot drink we use re-usable flasks; if instead of the usual plastic straws we give our children paper straws or ones made out of bamboo; if instead of plastic confetti during our festas we go back to using paper.  My point is that miniscule – almost unnoticeable – differences in our lifestyles could make a massive difference.”

Underlining that everyone has a role to play, MEP Metsola said “European level legislation is crucial, but the situation in Malta and Gozo means that we should not and cannot wait. We can go further than EU law and implement other additional models that work in our local context. Over the last decades we have managed to transform Malta. We’ve become the financial services Island, the online gaming Island, the tourism Island, the maritime law Islands and now the Blockchain Island. Is it not time to become the Mediterranean’s first Island free from single-use plastics?”

Two-time MEP award winner Roberta Metsola has been chosen to host the 2017 edition of The Parliament Magazine’s MEP Awards at The Concert Noble in Brussels.

This annual event showcases the work carried out by MEPs throughout the year while recognising their achievements in diverse sectors. Fifty-three MEPs have been nominated in recognition of their work in 19 different fields, including Marlene Mizzi and Miriam Dalli.

“I am very pleased to be able to support this event and host the ceremony this year,” said Dr Metsola. “Last year saw the European Union and the world face extraordinary challenges, including the conflict in Syria, terror attacks on European soil, and unprecedented migration to Europe; however, 2016 was also a year of important work and an increased focus on bridging the gap between the Union and its citizens.”

“In these times of uncertainty and debates about the future of the European Union, it is imperative that we, as Members of the European Parliament, stand up for the Europe we believe in and our European project. We must speak out in defence of the values and reaffirm European principles that we hold close to heart,” she said.

“While these awards are important to highlight the work of MEPs, I would commend the energy and drive that all of my colleagues from every Member State and from across the political spectrum demonstrate everyday in their commitment to furthering the European ideal.

Dr Metsola won the award for her work on justice and civil liberties in 2015 and again in 2016. The awards will take place on Tuesday, 22 March 2017.

Member of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola welcomed the agreement on wholesale roaming prices, which means that the EU has cleared the last hurdle required to abolish mobile phone roaming charges across the EU by the summer of 2017.

“This has been a long process – too long in many respects, but we are finally here. The decision was the final important step towards finally banning mobile phone roaming charges across the EU and comes after years of painstaking work and negotiations. It is time that this outdated business practice is finally consigned to history,” said Dr Metsola.

As of 15 June of this year, consumers will pay the same price for calls, texts and mobile data as at home, wherever they are travelling in the EU at no extra charge, subject to a fair usage clause.

“This is an issue that has been pushed in the European Parliament for years and something that people in Malta and Gozo have called for for a long time, and I am so pleased that this will finally become a reality soon. Now that the roaming charges issue has been settled, it is time to look at the next step – reducing charges for intra-EU calls when in your home State,” added Dr Metsola.

MEP Roberta Metsola has been elected as the coordinator for the European People’s Party (EPP) within the powerful Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament.

The Committee, which is one of the largest legislative bodies in the Parliament, deals with issues such as immigration, security and border controls, privacy, anti-discrimination and fundamental rights, which regularly top the list of concerns of people in Malta and around the EU. Roberta Metsola was elected after a vote by MEPs in the Committee during an election in Strasbourg.

Dr Metsola said that she was looking forward to working with MEPs from across the political divide. “The next two and a half years are crucial for the European project; we have to keep reaching across the political aisle to ensure that we are able to address concerns of citizens and restore faith in the European project,” she said.

“With David Casa also elected as coordinator of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, and Therese Comodini Cachia as deputy coordinator of the Committee on Legal Affairs, we have shown how the European Parliament is not about the geographic size of your country but about how well you are able to build alliances. The PN delegation will continue to ensure that the voice of everyone in Malta and Gozo is heard,” added Dr Metsola.

In her new role, Roberta Metsola will be responsible for coordinating the EPP position on any number of dossiers and with negotiating legislation with different Groups in the Committee.

My position has always been that those people who arrive in Europe and who are not in need of protection should be sent back swiftly and safely. It is a principle that must be a pillar of our asylum and migration structure. It is the only way for a sustainable way forward.

In the near future, Joseph Muscat’s administration will start to deport a handful of children who were born to people who arrived in Malta irregularly years ago. They form part of a larger group of people being deported.

The children were born in Malta. They have always lived in Malta. They know no land other than our own. They know no life apart from the one they have here.

It comes after the government reportedly decided to withdraw the Temporary Humanitarian Protection status granted to these individuals, who fell through the cracks in our legislation – not satisfying the stringent criteria to qualify for refugee status but who could not be returned to their country of origin.

Legislation and policy cannot exist in a vacuum, the surrounding circumstances and reality on the ground must be taken into consideration.  We must be firm, but we must be compassionate. We must be resilient but we must be honest.

So, of course, a line must be drawn somewhere, but children who only know Malta as their home, who have never left our shores, should not become pawns in a political manoeuvre aimed at Muscat trying to appeal to particular factions in our society.

Muscat refuses to do anything about the unsustainable amount of visas and residence permits being issued to Libyan nationals. He refuses to investigate the medical visa scandal that has allowed so many third-country nationals to settle in Malta. He travels the world to sell our passports and grant citizenship to those class of citizens he looks up to. And yet, his focus has been hell-bent on deporting a few children under the guise of “action on immigration”.

Despite the sad attempt at bravado, he is as he always has been: weak with the strong and the rich but strong only with the weak and the poor.

In some cases, these people have been on our islands for more than a decade. Yes, they arrived irregularly and, yes, they should have had their cases dealt with faster but the current situation manipulated by the Prime Minister is the opposite of justice.

It is typical Muscat: fawning over those he looks up to and can sell passports to, while kicking those children who cannot afford his price out into the cold

It was Henry James who stressed that there is an added turn of the screw in the element of horror whenever children are involved. He was right. It is simply not right to try to act like a bully-boy and make an example out of children who have no fault in any of this. When did we become a society that allows this behaviour? When did it become acceptable for voiceless children to bear the brunt?

Of course, expecting our Prime Minister to do anything that may cost him a vote or two is like waiting for Panama Papers Minister Konrad Mizzi to admit wrong­doing. It will never happen.

Muscat is happy to throw out these tearful children who have been in Malta all their lives before rushing to the airport to greet the next (former) Libyan businessman, Russian oligarch or Vietnamese member of parliament who have paid to become our latest citizens.

It is typical Muscat: fawning over those he looks up to and can sell passports to, while kicking those children, who cannot afford his price, out into the cold.

So before we pat our Prime Minister on the back, ask yourself whether you think this is really “action on immigration” or if this is just another attempt at a cheap headline at the expense of a few children whose names will be quickly forgotten.

Europe is facing unprecedented immigration and asylum challenges and having a fair system of returns must be part of any solution. But there is action on migration and then there are political gambits.

There is little doubt that this is no more than a cynical ploy aimed at boosting Muscat’s fake strongman image that he so badly wants everyone to believe.

We are not going to solve any immigration challenge by going after a couple of children born here.

But this was never about immigration, it was only ever about Muscat.

What he fails to see is that standing on the shoulders of little children will not make him or our country any taller.

Roberta Metsola is a Nationalist MEP

“When it comes to money laundering, there is no doubt of the need and urgency to tackle it. But it is also clear that we need to be careful of knee-jerk reactions. We must be very careful not to go down the road of having a disproportionate legislative response that risks infringing on States’ sovereignty on taxation matters under the guise of going after money laundering,” said Dr Metsola.

“Coming from the Union’s smallest economy, we need to make sure that any measures we propose do not place a hugely disproportionate burden on economies like ours,” she added.

Dr Metsola said that “the Panama Papers scandal shone a light on more than simply dodgy dealings with third-country offshore havens; it has exposed the corrupt, unearthed money laundering activities on an almost industrial scale and shed light on the secret financial set-ups of senior politicians in Member States.

We have to be very clear that what we need to tackle here is abusive, illegal activity – money laundering – and not Member States’ tax competitiveness.”

“The high profile cases of so-called revenge pornography in Malta, Italy, the United Kingdom and across the EU is symptomatic of a problem that is prevalent in our societies. We are seeing case after case of people – young people in particular – who are blackmailed, bullied and tormented because their private photos and videos are shared without their permission, leaving them little or no recourse. It is unacceptable,” said MEP Roberta Metsola.

Speaking in Strasbourg, MEP Metsola launched a written declaration on revenge pornography and cyberbullying in the European Parliament. It is supported by MEPs from every major political grouping and from different EU States.

“The sharp rise in people using online and mobile social platforms has unfortunately been accompanied by a sharp rise in bullying and harassment requiring increased efforts to deal with the issue across the Union.

We know the devastating effects that this crime can have on its victims including severe mental health issues, social stigma and in some cases even suicide. It must be stopped,” added Dr Metsola.

MEPs are calling on Member States to take all necessary measures, including criminal sanctions, as well as develop anti-cyberbullying awareness programmes and education tools. They also want to further involve private internet and mobile platforms to stop the dissemination of revenge pornography.

“Being the smallest EU State does not mean Malta is least influential” – Roberta Metsola

“We need to be careful that in this climate of political populism, the EU does not go down the road of over-regulation that chokes innovation and damages start-ups and SMEs. It is possible to have a balance between the strong social safeguards and standards we take for granted in Europe, with the innovation we see in the Silicon Valley for example,” said Member of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola.

Dr Metsola was talking during a discussion on Small States in the EU, which was organised by the European Parliament Office in Malta together with Malta-EU Steering & Action Committee (MEUSAC) and the University of Malta. The discussion was followed by the launch of a new book edited by Professor Lino Briguglio on the economic perspectives of Small States in the European Union.

“Every State needs to adapt to the times and that means that we sometimes need to leave our comfort zone. If Europe is to remain competitive we cannot legislate as if it is 1990”, said Dr Metsola.

Underscoring how much of a success Malta has made out of its EU Membership, Dr Metsola said “EU funding has changed the face of Malta, providing businesses with opportunities and Government with the resources it needs to tackle some of the most pressing issues. The advantageous funding packages that have been negotiated since accession – not to mention political minefields like negotiating the sixth MEP seat – are testament to the skill, influence and network of the Maltese representatives of the time.”

She continued saying “So Malta may very well be the smallest EU Member State, but it is by no means the least influential one. This is particularly true in the European Parliament, where the six of us do what we can to make sure the voice of the Maltese people echoes around the Parliament’s chamber. Being the smallest Member State and the smallest delegation in the European Parliament is sometimes lonely work – it means that we need to work harder – and we do. It also means that our resources are far more limited and we therefore need to focus of those areas where we can really make a difference.”

Dr Metsola pointed out the advantages of coming from a small state saying that “the smaller the country, the more we are able to meet people from different sectors and the more we are able to listen and give back to them about the discussions on a European level. That gives us an edge.”

Dr Metsola said that “As an EU Member State we have proved that far from being swallowed up, with a fair playing field, our businesses can compete, our social system can cope, our markets can adapt and our politicians can hold their own.

We have made a success in Europe and we would be wrong to ignore just how much of it is down to Malta’s credibility and our reputation as an honest broker around the EU table, going into the EU Presidency, this reputation is more important than ever.”

Prof. Briguglio, Dr Alfred Sant, Dr Mark Harwood, Dr Philip von Brockdorff also addressed the event. Dr Vanni Xuereb moderated the discussion, while Dr Peter Agius delivered introductory remarks.

“I visit Gozo regularly and meet with people from every different sector here and everyone agrees that Gozo needs young people to become more involved in the debate and in the decisions shaping your future. Don’t be bystanders, join together and make your voices heard. That is the only way that Gozo, Malta and the rest of Europe will change,” said Dr Metsola.

Dr Metsola emphasised that sometimes the EU gets it wrong and these issues are more acutely felt in small nations like Malta and more so in smaller islands like Gozo, “but if you work hard enough for long enough, even one person can make a difference. Never let anyone tell you that you are too small or too alone to make change happen. Never let the geographic realities of our country hold you back”.

Underlining the importance of young people standing up for the European project, Dr Metsola said that “Europe is a continent of opportunity, but people must stand up for it. Europe is not some mythical, invisible organisation far away. Europe is Gozo as much as Gozo is Europe. It is you and me”.

Dr Metsola said that Europe needs young voices and that it is the coming together of different countries and different cultures that gives the European project strength.

Dr Metsola was speaking an event organised at the Gozo Secondary Boys School to discuss a book ‘Dear Europe’ published with letters from European students, including a number from Gozo, addressing politicians and the public on what they would like to see from the EU.

Mr Victor Galea, the Principal of Gozo College, Dr Francis Abela, the Headmaster of Gozo College Secondary School, Mr Francesco Vivacqua, Chairman of the ‘Dear Europe’ Project and Dr Peter Agius, Head of the European Parliament Office in Malta, spoke at the event. Raul and Tony, two students whose letters were published in the book, also addressed the students.