Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said that the Commission’s report on the Government’s Draft Budget for 2014 was positive and encouraging but said that this did not mean that the Government has achieved its targets.

“The fact that the Commission did not impose any corrective action on Malta is a positive development and shows that Brussels is seeing our budget in a positive way.”

He said that the Commission’s report is based on a draft sent two weeks before the actual presentation of the Budget and it was not conscious of the full details.

Asked to explain the main differences between the draft sent to Brussels and the actual budget, Minister Scicluna said that there were only minor differences and the government only “tweaked” its proposals.

Minister Scicluna said that the Commission based its projections that Malta is a risk of not achieving its deficit targets on its own projections and said that “the proof will be the actual budget implementation in 2014.”

“If we slip we will lose everything,” he said.

Minister Scicluna said he would ensure that the budget process is strengthened so that there would be no slippages.