The previous government had failed to convince the EU to consider Gozo a region and the Opposition leader should shoulder responsibility, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this evening.

Speaking in Victoria during an activity held as part of the MEP electoral campaign, Dr Muscat said a request had been made in 2012 for studies to be held for Gozo to be considered a region. But the arguments presented by the Nationalist government had not been accepted by the EU.

Dr Busuttil, Dr Muscat said, should shoulder responsibility for not convincing the EU because Gozo deserved better.

The Prime Minister said his government would be spending 10 per cent of EU funds on Gozo. The Nationalist government, he said, had abandoned Gozo and in just one year of Nationalist administration the unemployed had increased by eight per cent, from 670 to 720. On the contrary, the Labour government had created 200 new jobs in Gozo and it would continue working to create more.

Dr Muscat said that the yacht marina and cruise liner terminal projects, together with the possibility of an air strip, would also help the Gozitan economy.

The Prime Minister said that in the next few days, the government would be giving signs of what it would be doing to create more employment in Gozo for the economy to grow.

He said that his government was not afraid to take decisions and while the Nationalist Party abstained even on issues such as hunting, he always took a position.

Dr Muscat said he was confident Gozo would once again express confidence in the Labour Party continuing on the positive results achieved in the last elections when it elected three members of Parliament.

The Prime Minister said that while the Nationalist Party only saw the negative, his government had reduced water and electricity tariffs, as promised, and brought the deficit down to under three per cent.