At a time when nearly all around us in Europe there is still a flatlined economic investment and growth, we cannot but be heartened reading the finance minister’s Pre-Budget Document 2015 aptly titled ‘Creating opportunities not dependencies’.

By incentivising work opportunities, especially for the young, the minister is targeting a social democratic economy with a modernised welfare system capable of coping with new social risks. This is precisely the tone of the document which Caritas Malta presented to the governmen last year when the President of the Republic was still a member of the Cabinet of ministers.

Getting able-bodied people off long-term welfare support adds dignity to a higher income.

Let’s hope that unpredicted international events won’t ossify the finance minister’s aspirations.