When you’re voting ‘use your head, not your heart’, GRTU says

- GRTU reiterates its pro-EU message

"Common sense is the logic that tells you what’s good for you and for the Maltese. The GRTU’s message is this: Use your head and not your heart."
This is the sensible wording at the end of the General Retailer and Traders’ Association’s Retailer editorial. Objectively steering away from controversy, the GRTU’s message however reiterates its pro-EU stand.
Stopping short from directing members who to vote for, GRTU director Vince Farrugia told The Malta Financial and Business Times the association was in no way attempting to influence its members. It had, however, taken a clear stand on EU membership, independently and autonomously.
The Retailer editorial clearly states that EU membership "strengthens Malta’s economic potential in the world and gives potential investors great faith in Malta, to buy Maltese products and conduct business in Malta."
Focusing on the self-employed and small businesses, the editorial reads that EU membership guarantees finance and assistance to these businesses, ruling out that this sort of potential could be made solely available from a Maltese government.
"There will be renewed assistance for Maltese businesses to modernise and strengthen themselves to face the new challenges to the Maltese economy. Malta’s credibility will be strengthened as the island placates itself from isolation and into the European market. On top of everything, commerce will increase, consumption will increase and so will money in hand increase, which is the fulcrum on which Maltese businesses turn."
The editorial states these are the reasons the association’s executive council unanimously agreed in favour of EU membership on 26 February 2003.
"Nobody was pushed to decide. Nobody told the GRTU to decide", the editorial reads, stating the association had weighed all proposals and consulted international bodies EuroCommerce and UEAPME (Union Européenne de l’Artisanat et des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises).
"We saw what the credit rating agencies had to say about Malta’s accession vis-à-vis the international financial sphere. The advice was identical: EU membership strengthens Malta’s economic potential in the world and gives potential investors great faith in Malta, to buy Maltese products and conduct business in Malta.
"Now we have arrived to the 12 April 2003 elections. The GRTU will not be giving any directives to its members and represented sectors on who to vote for. The Maltese businessman and self-employed know how to earn their bread and have to think of those who work with them.
"It is not political passion and unfettered partisanship that should guide businessmen on how to vote. Common sense is the logic that tells you what’s good for you and for the Maltese. The GRTU’s message is this: Use your head and not your heart."