PN candidates to strive for employment creation - PM

The Nationalist Party's candidates for the EP election would continue working hard to bring more employment to the country, strengthen current jobs and open up more opportunities, the Prime Minister said this morning.

Speaking during a Nationalist Party conference on employment, the Prime Minister said that PN candidates would work to strengthen the female participation in the work force and to ensure that there were structures which helped parents find the right balance between responsibility of the family and work.

Pensioners were no longer losing their pension if they returned to work and there were now an additional 1,000 people aged over 61 who were still in employment.

In its first five years in the EU, the country continued to generate jobs creating 7,000 new ones in 12 months.

Dr Gonzi criticised the opposition for not giving the government pairing during a parliamentary debate yesterday. As a result, he said, the government could not send a minister to a ministerial meeting on the flu pandemic.

The MLP, he said, wanted the debate to be held today but the PN had this important conference on employment. The MLP had not changed one bit and remained a "no" party.

The Prime Minister said that between 2004 and 2006, Malta absorbed 91 per cent of the funds available from the EU – the highest percentage of all 25 countries.

Malta was also the first of the 27 member states to present its programme for the €855 million available funds which had now become €1,259 million.

He said that important changes which needed to be made could not be postponed. Like it had been necessary to change the electricity tariffs, other reforms, such as in the transport sector and at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, needed to be carried out.

"The fears of today cannot jeopardise our future," he said.

He expressed regret that the government was finding it more difficult to discuss matters around a table and find solutions. This, he said, needed to be done and unions should not see only the sectorial interests but the whole picture.

On illegal migration, Dr Gonzi said Malta would continue doing what was morally, ethically and legally correct.