Addressing trade unions and other social partners to mark Workers’ Day, Dr Gonzi said that in order to reach these aims, the government needed the assistance of the social partners and the private sector.

He said the exercise to make Malta more competitive needs to be seriously addressed and should be seen as a national project that includes the participation of private industry. At this historical moment, he said, a social part will result in a better quality of life for workers and an improvement in working conditions.

Dr Gonzi said the idea of a social pact is extremely good, but it will mean taking difficult decisions which will not always affect everyone positively.

He said the Nationalist Party has always driven home the message that we have to believe in the skills of our workers. “This is something which you rarely hear. If our workers are given the right incentives

and are seen as investment, the Maltese

workers deliver,” he said.

He said he wanted to take the opportunity to express his optimism for the future, adding that this depended on how much the unions and the government managed to work together. “I understand that everyone has to represent his own sector of workers but we must get our acts together in the best interest of the country,” he said.

Speaking about Malta’s formal European Union membership on Saturday, Dr Gonzi said 1 May has always been associated with employment. He said it was not a coincidence that the EU chose this day as the day when 25 European Member States become One Europe. He said the PN’s vision of Malta growing within an enlarged Europe is becoming a reality but government, social partners and the private sector should work together to make the best of the opportunities that lay ahead.

Meanwhile, later yesterday afternoon, Dr Gonzi held separate meetings with delegations from the General Workers’ Union and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin.