Finance Minister Edward Scicluna called for an end to the EU’s dependence on the International Monetary Fund, arguing that Europe was rich enough to sustain its own “rainy-day fund”.

This became obvious when the IMF and the European Commission problematically diverged on how to react to the Greek crisis.

However, he emphasised Malta’s position that such a fund should be managed cautiously, and that it should not make up for the inefficiencies of the spend-thrifty at the expense of those who managed their finances well.

Prof. Scicluna was speaking in Parliament in the context of a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Committee, which discussed the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Finance Ministry Permanent Secretary Alfred Camilleri explained how the ESM had been developed through an intergovernmental treaty between countries forming part of the Eurozone as a replacement to earlier, temporary mechanisms.

Mr Camilleri said that the present economic calm provided an opportune moment for the role of the ESM and of related institutions to be re-evaluated, potentially widening the mechanism’s remit.

Earlier, the minister rubbished claims that Malta’s good performance with rating agencies had to do with the amounts that these agencies were being paid.

Rating agencies, such as Standard and Poor’s, were not being paid any more than they had been paid during previous administrations, including when Malta had a negative outlook, he said. However, the country had engaged the services of additional agencies in line with an EU recommendation.

The positive scores awarded by the agencies were simply a reflection of the performance of the economy, he said.