Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that while the government would follow up the lists of Maltese who reportedly held accounts in HSBC Geneva, this was not the only bank in Switzerland, and Switzerland was not the only country where people could have parked money away from the tax authorities and the government would seek information about them everywhere. 

He pointed out that apart from the recent media reports about a list of HSBC account holders, there had also been another list, mentioned in 2010, which had not been followed up by the former government and which would be followed up by the present one.

Speaking in a telephone interview with One Radio from Madrid, where he attended a socialist leaders' meeting, Dr Muscat also spoke about fuel prices and noted that prices in Europe had started to go up, while in Malta they would go down. Soon, he said, average prices in Europe would be higher than in Malta. He was confident, he said, that time would show the government was right on this issue, and the leader of the Opposition had spoken too early.

About Libya, he said that at the Madrid meeting  he was pleased to hear the French Prime Minister declare that the situation in the North African country was a danger to Europe.

The international community was at last realising the problem in Libya. In the Security Council the UN's envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon, had asked for more time in the hope of reaching a diplomatic solution. One hoped that this solution would be achieved.

Nonetheless an international intervention would still be needed. It was hoped that the intervention would be requested by the Libyans, who would also define the nature of the intervention and the help they wanted from it.

Ideally the rival governments in Libya could unite to better tackle the other threats in the country and the region. 

If a diplomatic solution was not achieved, the international community could not sit idly by, Dr Muscat said.

He said Malta would continue to be vigilant. Malta did not have any information that it was being targeted, but like all people who locked the door of their home at night, just in case, Malta too was being vigilant. 

The media, too, should be careful to report the facts without alarming the people unnecessarily.

If the government had any information about any possible threat the people would be informed.

On Greece, Dr Muscat said no final solution had been achieved yet, but the problem had been postponed by four months. Importantly, on Friday Greece declared that it would not seek a debt write off, reversing earlier claims. This was the most important point for Malta, which has exposure of €180 million in loans and guarantees to Greece.

Malta was otherwise flexible on the conditions imposed on Greece but other countries were less so.  

Malta respected the fact that the Greeks had voted against austerity, but it should not be Maltese taxpayers to pay for that promise. If the Greek government wanted to ease pressure on, say, pensions, it should seek funds through cuts elsewhere not expect European taxpayers to foot the bill.