Malta expected the European Commission to improve its financial oversight of member states in order to prevent a repeat of the Greek tragedy, the Prime Minister said yesterday.

Lawrence Gonzi said that improving the European Commission's analysis, informing countries about the good and bad in their economies, would also be beneficial to Malta.

His comments, at a working breakfast by the Nationalist Party, came a day after the Commission recommended improved economic governance within the EU.

Dr Gonzi said the crisis in Greece was partly due to the financial problems that grew and got out of hand when Greece forked out a €50 billion bank bail, which it could not afford.

He agreed with proposals to tighten the monitoring of individual states' finances, adding that there were discussions at an EU level to this effect.

Asked about the blacklisting of companies offering bad working conditions to employees, announced by former Social Policy Minister John Dalli last year, Dr Gonzi said the principle was adopted as policy. However, the government was still working out how it would be implemented.

Turning to Vision 2015, Dr Gonzi said this was no longer a target but "work in progress".

He said he wanted to be realistic in view of the challenges facing the country at the moment but he was clearly upbeat about the prospects.

In this vein, Dr Gonzi pointed out a recent article in the Financial Times which placed Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta on the podium for the most solid financial services jurisdiction around.

In his business-like speech, he detoured occasionally to make a political point about the ongoing controversy on the extension to the Delimara power station. He insisted that Malta's prospects would be severely hampered without a constant and reliable supply of energy for the years to come.

In reply to a comment by the general secretary of the General Workers' Union, Tony Zarb on the possibility of soldiers, the police, prison warders and Civil Protection Department personnel joining a trade union, Dr Gonzi said it was not the trade union membership that was the stumbling block but whether the requests such forces were making could be acceded to.