'EPP against fiscal federalism'

The centre-right European People's Party is against tax harmonisation across the EU, however it is in favour of greater scrutiny by Brussels of national budgets, according to Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil.

"Better economic management across the EU and stronger scrutiny by the Commission of member states' budgets is important to ensure the eurozone's stability," Dr Busuttil said when asked about the crisis that has dogged the single currency.

Dr Busuttil said the EPP was against "fiscal federalism" advocated by some economic analysts in the wake of the eurozone crisis, which exposed the big economic and public finance discrepancies between different member states.

Eurozone countries have had to bail out Greece and, earlier this month, agreed to a massive financial stability fund to ward off market speculators.

He was speaking during a news conference with MEP David Casa where both MEPs presented a report of the work done over the past year.

Dr Busuttil said member states had to be responsible and disciplined and it would be a mistake if the EU ended up in a situation where it would have to fork out money to bail out individual states that used fiscal federalism as an excuse to do as they please.

Mr Casa touched upon the sensitive subject of pension reform and said that even Malta had to ensure it maintained sustainable finances. Malta had to address the longer term issues, such as whether to increase the pensionable age. He called on the Labour Party not to turn such issues into a political football.

Talking about their past year in the European Parliament, the two PN MEPs drew comparisons between their parliamentary work and that of Labour's three MEPs.

Dr Busuttil and Mr Casa said that, among others, they compiled eight reports against Labour's three and tabled 82 parliamentary questions against Labour's 15.

Nationalist Party general secretary Paul Borg Olivier praised the two MEPs and insisted they worked much harder than Labour's three.

However, Mr Casa said the five Maltese MEPs were working better together in this Legislature, meeting every month to coordinate their political work. He hoped that this new way of doing politics, adopted by MEPs in Brussels, would also be adopted domestically.