Next year’s Budget will only be presented once the parliamentary seat likely to be vacated by Tonio Borg has been filled, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
Former PN deputy leader Dr Borg must win over European parliamentarians during a mid-November grilling session before he can be appointed EU Consumer Affairs and Health Commissioner.
If successful, Foreign Minister Dr Borg will resign his parliamentary seat, with the governing Nationalist Party either holding a by-election or directly co-opting someone to take his place.
Speaking in St Julian’s yesterday, the Prime Minister made it clear that the Budget would only be presented once this process had been completed.
“We want to have everything in place in time for the Budget. Hopefully we’ll know more by the second week of November,” Dr Gonzi said, referring to Dr Borg’s date with the Strasbourg-based European Parliament.
Reacting, the Labour Party said that Dr Gonzi’s “political games” in trying to delay the Budget were risking instability and putting jobs on the line. “People can see through all this,” a PL spokesman said.
Yesterday’s weekly PN dialogue session centred on the thoughts and concerns of small entrepreneurs, with the Prime Minister fielding questions on factory service charges, investment schemes and government support for self-employed workers.
He explained how a recently signed agreement will see factories in each industrial estate take collective responsibility for the estate’s upkeep, with factories paying service charges to their own tenants’ association.
The Prime Minister also told another audience member that the Government would look into broadening the remit of schemes such as MicroInvest to apply to refurbished equipment, provided EU funding regulations allowed it.
Government was embarrassed last week by a World Bank report which ranked Malta 167th worldwide – last among EU states – in terms of ease of access to construction permits.
In reaction, Finance Ministry officials had expressed disappointment that the report had ignored more recent Government initiatives such as Business First – a one-stop shop system bringing a variety of business-related Government services under one roof.
Dr Gonzi referred to Business First again yesterday, while also noting that as of November 1, would-be entrepreneurs would no longer need a trading license to set up shop. Only food and health-related businesses would still require a license, the Prime Minister said.
He bemoaned Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat’s criticism and the PL’s decision to trumpet the World Bank findings rather than Malta’s 4.6 per cent unemployment rate or news of record tourist arrivals.
“The Opposition leader should be selling Malta, marketing it to foreign investors. But instead, he tries to highlight shortcomings,” Dr Gonzi complained.
Dr Gonzi also touched upon the Delimara power station extension, which has been delayed by up to six months due to turbine damage during its testing phase.
The damaged turbine was now in the UK and being assessed by engineers from plant manufacturer BWSC, Dr Gonzi said yesterday.
“We will make sure Malta gets a top-quality power station built to European standards,” the Prime Minister said.