Mr Stub Jorgensen was echoing a speech made by Family and Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina during a seminar on the National Action Plan (NAP) against Social Exclusion, held yesterday at the Corinthia Hotel in Attard.

The minister had said that Malta ranked 10th out of the 25 EU member states, on the list of Lisbon dimensions: EU criteria which benchmark, among other things, social inclusion.

The event, which was organised by the ministry in collaboration with the European Commission, was attended by a wide representation of officials from NGOs and unions who had the opportunity to discuss issues related to the NAP in four different focus groups.

The NAP – expected to be ready for adoption and implementation by the end of July – will include firm proposals to fight social exclusion. It builds on the Joint Inclusion Memorandum (JIM) which was adopted in December last year, said Mrs Cristina.

The JIM, in line with the Nice Objectives, outlines eight challenges currently facing Maltese society: employment, adequate income and resources, education, family and solidarity and children’s rights, equal access to quality services, provision of services, housing and the regeneration of deprived areas. Mrs Cristina said that some 15 per cent of Maltese people live at risk of poverty, with men and women being affected equally. Data also showed that, were it not for social benefits, the risk of poverty rate for the year 2000 would have been 30 per cent – reasonably good compared to the former EU15’s 40 per cent.

However, figures tend to obscure the more complex issues that lie beneath, said the minister, making it clear that this relative success should not make us complacent. The most vulnerable strata include, among others, children living in single parent families and families with three children, she said.

Mrs Cristina pointed out that our social welfare system needs modernising, with emphasis given to higher productivity, creation of wealth and adequate wage levels, among other things. The present system needs to be reconsidered, she said, in a way that promotes self-help and reliance on one’s own work-related benefits, whenever possible, rather than solely on state welfare benefits.