Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening that the electorate should use its vote at the European Parliament elections to encourage his government to continue on its successful road.
Speaking in Siggiewi during a party activity, Dr Muscat described the opposition as a party without any sense of direction and only interested in playing a negative political game. He said that on the other hand his government was delivering on many fronts and was also managing to get the praise of the European Commission.
Referring to the latest positive assessment of the Maltese economy by Brussels, Dr Muscat said that rather than the bailout predicted by the PN prior to the election, the Government had already managed to turn around the economy with the commission predicting robust growth.
"Though we are not surprised by the commission's forecast, we are also working to surprise the commission by achieving even better economic growth than the one predicted by Brussels," he said.
Touching on various issues the government was working on, Dr Muscat said that his government would soon announce measures to encourage the introduction of private pensions.
He said that instead of raising the retirement age, the government wanted people, particularly youths, to start saving more for their old age, and the government would soon announce measures for those wanting to have a separate pension apart from the one given by the state.
On employment, Dr Muscat dismissed the criticism that the government was not managing to create jobs. However, he said that the government wanted to prepare Malta's youth better as it was not acceptable that some students come out of school without any skills. He said that the government would be investing more in training and would give further incentives to the jobless to find a job without suffering a sudden cut in their social benefits.
With regards to the EU, Dr Muscat said that during its first year the government showed that it is capable to deal with the EU on an equal footing and without any inferiority complex.
He said that Malta's place was firmly inside the EU.
"The issue has been completely closed ten years ago when the Maltese decided in favuor of Malta's membership. Labour had closed the chapter once and for and for all and decided to move on" he said.