There is a growing European and international scrutiny on financial services centres and their tax legislation and the Opposition fended this pressure off in its time in office, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said today.

In his message to the KPMG biennial financial services conferences, Dr Busuttil said this pressure was now gathering significant momentum “and we need - all together, you the stakeholders, government and Oppositon - to work together to defend our patch against what I see as an unjust onslaught driven by interests that I, for one, do not share”.

Dr Busuttil said he believed it should be perfectly possible for a country to have cutting-edge tax legislation that offered an attractive package to one and all.

“Competition is good and tax competition is also good. It is good for us, but it should also be good for Europe.”

So the Opposition would join the sector and the government in driving this point wherever and to whomsoever it needed to be driven.

“And we will join forces with you and the government in doing so.”

Dr Busuttil warned that it would be folly to think that life could go on as it was and that things would not and could not change.

“It is our job to think today, of what can happen tomorrow. It is our job to think today of alternatives that we ought to have in place if we want to grow our economy in a manner that relies less on what we take for granted today. To diversify further. To ensure that any possible changes that may happen will take place gradually and smoothly. A Plan B if you want. Or call it a Plan D for diversification, for different thinking, for dynamism. In that way, come what may, we will be prepared,” Dr Busuttil said.