A fact from 2003 Maltese European Union membership referendum appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 3 March 2008, and was viewed approximately 1,000 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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I cannot edit, because I mentored the application in 1998, as a staffer of the Western European Union. The trigger was the introduction of the Euro, and a request from the OECD to facilitate the transfer of our European Pensioners onto the new currency. One was a member of the Scicluna family, eminent in the Nation, and the response of their financial advisor was extraordinary, the Banker's Association (or rather, the 5 Bank Managers, who used to meet for a curry on Friday nights) wanted Malta to join and didn't know how to go about it. I therefore found myself acting as some kind of Honorary Consul, assisting them diplomatically, which reawakened the stalled accession agreement, with the results described.
Some of the guidance was positively Ruritanian: the Commission sought 174 legally qualified Maltese translators, Malta has just 4, all working for the Government. If one dropped the "legally qualified", it would wipe out the tourist sector, a major source of foreign income, as Brussels would have removed every tour guide in the country! The solution was easy: all Maltese speak English, so that became their official language as far as Europe's concerned. 5.70.112.105 (talk) 00:18, 20 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]
