Cornerstones of persuasion: inclusion and empathy Interview with Dr Joe Borg
Diplo: Dr Borg, could you please give us some examples from your career when persuasion played decisive role in negotiations or policy initiatives? I can mention two instances where I think that persuasion played the determining role in discussions or in negotiations as you said. The first was in my capacity as Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Malta, and the second was in my capacity as European Commissioner. In my capacity as the Minister of the Foreign AfYou either persuade them fairs, one of the first and the major task that I was in order to come onboard, assigned was conducting the negotiations of Malta’s to accept, or else even if accession to the EU. As the Foreign Minister I was they are not persuaded, asked to lead the negotiation process at the political at least they know exactly level. However, I need to in a way underline the what you are trying to fact that government had already decided that on negotiate, because at the the successful conclusion of negotiations, Malta end of the day you have to would be holding a referendum on accession, and move. therefore the Maltese people would have to decide whether or not they were in favour of Malta’s membership. This meant that we had to inform the Maltese public of what the EU was about, what membership would entail, and what we would negotiate. In order to do so, I felt that it was important to do two things: one was to organise an information campaign, addressing the European issues 109