Council of Ministers confirms Commission's position on Malta's deficit

The Council of Ministers has confirmed the European Commission's position on Malta regarding excessive deficit and public finances, Labour Party spokesman Charles Mangion said.

He said Malta was the only country that was requested to correct its position by 2010. The Commission's position confirmed that the Prime Minister had lost control of public finances and Maltese families, workers, the middle class, students, the self-employed and businesses were suffering as a result. The commission was insisting that Malta's situation was not the result of exceptional measures because of the economic crisis.

Dr Mangion said that the Prime MInister was denying the economic realities when, in spite of the fact that debt had exploded in the first three months of this year and continued to rise to over 300 million euros up to May. This was while the gross domestic product shrank by 3.3 percent or by 4.6 per cent if the shipyards' early retirement schemes were not taken into account.