Acting MHRA President Tony Zahra this morning lost his temper during an MCESD meeting, held to discuss Country Specific Recommendations (CSR) by the European Commission.
“We’ve been sitting here for an hour and all we’ve heard are the problems. We already know what the problems are, give us the solutions,” he shouted from his seat, halfway through the EC representatives’ address.
Minister Helena Dalli asked Mr Zahra to calm down, telling him he would have a chance to put forward questions following the speeches. The EC representative, Alexia Zammit, explained that the European Commission is only expected to present recommendations, leaving it up to the member states to propose concrete action measures.
The incident ended there.
In its CSR report, the European Commission insisted that all member states need to focus more on investment, structural reforms and fiscal responsibilities.
As regards to Malta, the EC said that there needs to be more focus on education, access to finance, pension systems and public finances.
The report noted that Malta still registers a high rate of early school leavers, despite efforts by the government to improve attendance and offer alternative learning paths. Secondary students also ranked poorly in science and maths subjects.
Ms Zammit, an EC representative explained that access to credit is what is keeping most Maltese from investing and there are still high costs for both small and large corporations. Micro-enterprises, which make up 95% of Malta’s SMEs, face the most struggles.
Public deficit is expected to decrease further in the upcoming four years.
On pensions, the EC states that Malta is expected to have one of the highest expenditures on pensions systems.
The CSRs were implemented by the European Commission in July.