Opposition Leader Lawrence Gonzi disagreed with the Eurogroup’s decision to place the burden of the bailout in Cyprus on depositors.

“Had we been there (at the EU talks on Cyprus), we would have made that argument,” he told the press yesterday.

He was speaking at the Nationalist Party headquarters during a visit by European Health Commissioner Tonio Borg, former deputy leader of the party.

Dr Gonzi also spoke about the “extraordinary differences” between Malta and Cyprus, praising the Central Bank governor Josef Bonnici for explaining that Malta had a very strong banking sector with huge liquidity.

In an interview with The Times, Prof. Bonnici dismissed any comparison between Cyprus and Malta as misleading .

He said that, unlike Malta’s core banks, the large Cypriot banks were very active internationally with a high dependence on foreign sources of funds and high exposure to losses on foreign assets.

“Let’s not muddle the differences between the two countries,” Dr Gonzi said, after international news reports implied Malta could soon face the same challenges as Cyprus.

Dr Gonzi also underlined the importance of approving the Budget in the second week of April.

He said this was an important sign to the EU that the island was already “back to business” and functioning “normally”.

He said he recently discussed the Budget time frame with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat with a view of having it approved after Parliament convened on April 6.

Dr Gonzi praised Dr Borg’s work over the past four months as European Commissioner, pointing out his various challenges, including the horsemeat scandal. Dr Borg spoke about the numerous challenges being faced by Europe, including the ongoing economic crisis and Cyprus.

He said that although he was a European Commissioner, he would never forget his roots.