While praising the Government for its vaccine programme roll out and procurement of medical devices, First Vice President of the European Parliament and PN MEP Roberta Metsola decried a lack of leadership throughout COVID-19.

Dr Metsola spoke during this afternoon’s episode of The Boardroom, where she was asked about COVID-19, EU Funding and Malta’s economy.

“True leadership is understanding that you need to communicate hard truths, and we did not see enough of that. I truly understand businesses that have complained about a lack of communication and mixed messaging,” she said.

The EP Vice President was referring to several comments made by Prime Minister Robert Abela since the start of the pandemic. He famously said, “waves are in the sea” when asked about the possibility of a ‘second wave’ of COVID transmissions, which indeed came to pass. He had also said the road to normality will begin in March 2021, which in reality saw Malta adding restrictions due to spiralling cases, primarily caused by more transmissible variants of the virus.

Dr Metsola argued that Malta is to experience a once-in-a-life-time opportunity to reshape its economy through unprecedented EU funding. She was referring to the EU’s flagship €750 billion COVID-19 recovery plan, €672.5 billion of which has been allocated to the Recovery and Resilience facility.

Under the programme, Malta stands to receive a maximum of €300 million.

Asked to shed light on this program, Dr Metsola explained that right now, the Government has been asked to draft a national action plan seeking to tap into the facility, aimed at supporting investment and reforms. She said this “has to be done both from a public and private perspective”.

“Member States, including Malta, and this is where we expect more transparency from the Government, are being asked to set out a comprehensive package of projects and reforms that would benefit industry and the private sector by 2021. This is the time frame being looked at to recoup the losses incurred by the pandemic,” she said.

Dr Metsola stressed that the EU has set out priority areas, quipping that the Government can’t “just decide to build more high-rise buildings or tarmac more roads”.

Such priority areas include the green transition, digital transformation, sustainable growth, territorial cohesion, building resilience and next-generation policies. Powering of clean technology and renewables, modernising and streamlining public administration, supporting energy-efficient buildings and scaling up data cloud capacities are just some examples of projects that fit into the EU’s priority areas.

Dr Metsola was adamant that a discussion should take place on how to future proof Malta’s businesses, and what could be done to avoid damage should another pandemic emerge in the future.

Closing off the session, Dr Metsola was asked by presenter and business writer Jo Caruana whether she has any advice for women questioning a career in politics:
“Keep fighting, take risks and be ready to lose in order to win. Once you have those principles in mind then you can really take anything. Look around and seek advice from others who have gone through the situation, do not only place challenges on you, but, ensure that those around you are also able to take on those challenges.