Sant gives grudging support to euro decision

Next year would not be the best time for Malta to adopt the euro, Labour leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

He argued, as he has done before, that the country needed to achieve a much higher level of economic growth before joining the eurozone, but "hard-headed" Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi had insisted on adopting the European currency next year.

Making his first public statement following the European Commission's decision that Malta is ready to join the euro, Dr Sant said that turning the clock back was however not in the national interest and the party was prepared to accept the decision.

Although members of the European Popular Party - of which the Nationalist Party formed part - were saying the statistics presented by the government were incorrect and that Malta should not join the eurozone next year, he hoped that the decision would be retained. If the commission was accepting the statistics as presented by Dr Gonzi's government, it should do the same when the MLP is in government.

MLP deputy leader Michael Falzon expressed satisfaction at Malta being given the green light to adopt the euro, but added that this would not solve all the country's problems.

Dr Sant asked about the government's plans to protect consumers from overpricing once the euro was adopted. He said prices were already going up and fewer than 20 per cent of Chamber of Commerce members had joined the FAIR initiative, a commitment to display correct prices in both lira and euro.

Moreover, he said, the government needed a concrete plan to make Malta more competitive once the change in currency took place. As a strong currency, the euro created certain competition problems for business.

The Labour leader said the Nationalist Party seemed to be presenting the EU's decision as an indication that the country was moving forward. However, a survey commissioned by the Nationalist Party showed that 70 per cent of respondents did not feel they were better off than the year before.

He also spoke about the importance of attracting more tourists to Malta, referring to his party's proposals to build three golf courses.

Some Lm300,000 had been spent on studies on the piece of land in Ghajn Tuffieha on which the government had considered building a golf course. The idea was madness, he said, as it would have necessitated land speculation. The land would now be turned into a nature and history park.

Dr Sant described as shameful the fact that Dr Gonzi only asked for an investigation into former PN president Frank Portelli's allegations of corruption in Mater Dei hospital two weeks after these were made.