Education Minister Dolores Cristina has determinedly defended herself against calls for her resignation, insisting there is nothing she could have done differently in the case of the suspended EU funds.

In an interview with The Sunday Times today, she describes the past few weeks as the worst of her political career and says she is aware the suspension of EU educational funds might have a negative impact on her own popularity.

However, Ms Cristina says she feels the electorate and students will weigh up what happened with the EUPA against her track record and that of the government.

The minister insists she was only made aware of the severity of the situation a few days before the funds were actually suspended and that during a November 2009 meeting the people in charge were assuring everyone that matters were in hand.

However, she defended the three officials who have been blamed for the fiasco and have since resigned, saying their careers should not only be judged on this one year period.

In spite of this, Ms Cristina insisted she was consistently kept in the dark on the extent of the problem and that audit reports for the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA), which highlighted the EU's concerns with the way funds were being managed locally in 2006, 2007 and 2008, never came to her attention.

"No, these reports go to different levels but they never reached me... you are making a serious mistake if you think that every report in the ministry lands on my desk."