It has not succeeded yet, but the last signals coming from the social partners seem to be ‘negative’ to any social pact.

If this is so, there are decisions that the government must take and it will take them, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.

Speaking on Radio 101 during the Saturday morning political talkshow, Dr Gonzi said the government will however leave the door open for negotiations after the Budget Speech.

Dr Gonzi said the government has asked the unions to accept a wage freeze for the next few years but added that the government was ready to commit itself not to raise Income Tax and VAT for the same period of time. If, nevertheless, there is a rise in the cost of living, that will be compensated, Dr Gonzi said.

Dr Gonzi seemed to be replying to General Workers Union secretary general Tony Zarb who said at a press conference held on Friday that the government was imposing ‘unacceptable’ conditions.

Mr Zarb also claimed that no consultations have been held so far on the coming budget, but Dr Gonzi totally denied this: “Is this not the very reason of the long talks held at MCESD?” he asked.

Dr Gonzi stated that things were moving along until last Thursday’s meeting. He is ready to wait for a social pact up to the very last minute before the budget so that the Budget Speech would reflect the agreement that would have been reached.

Things are now becoming difficult, Dr Gonzi said, but government must move on. It is the government which must take the decisions and it will take them, without however closing the door in the social partners’ faces.

Dr Gonzi said he still intends to do as much as he can to obtain an agreement on a social pact. Even in his past roles, he has never tried to override the social partners, he always chose to discuss with them.

But the discussion must be on what is in the national interest. Once again Dr Gonzi urged the social partners not to choose sectoral interests over the national interest.

The government is giving the social partners an example, he said, it is not considering its sectoral interest: its own popularity.

This is decision time, Dr Gonzi said. This is the time for courage, not just by the leaders who count but also by the trade union leaders: they must rise above sectoral interest and seek the national interest.

Other countries did come to an agreement on a social pact and it worked for them, so why not for Malta?

Other issues, like Port Reform, must not be allowed to intrude in these discussions. All should be ready to surrender a bit so that all will gain at the end.

People who know him, Dr Gonzi said, know he is not afraid of taking unpopular decisions when they are required by the national interest.

Targets

At the beginning of his interview, Dr Gonzi referred to the speech he made at Friday’s session of the PN national council. He urged the country to look forward with optimism because the country is a strong one, he said and now it has the support of EU membership.

He pledged to move ahead on three issues:

• The economy: The government wants to create jobs and wealth, to identify and go for niche markets in the services sector such as tourism and financial services. The government wants to make Malta more competitive because countries who used to be worse off than us, such as Sicily, Greece and Portugal are now better off than we are, as are our neighbour and competitor countries such as Tunis and Egypt and even Libya itself.

• Education: The government wants to stimulate a national discussion on reforms in the educational sector. It wants to increase the number of those continuing their studies in those sectors which Malta requires.

• Tackling the environment – which does not mean tackling the Maghtab issue only.

On some of these issues government is only starting to act now, while on others it is already nearing conclusions. The government is tackling other issues head-on.

Mater Dei and the motion tabled by the Opposition

Next year the PN will celebrate its 125th anniversary. It has always tackled issues and has contributed a lot to the country’s development. The Malta Labour Party has also contributed but it was successive PN governments which brought about the bigger changes in Malta.

Dr Gonzi said he is sorry that the Opposition is being destructive in its criticism, especially with its motion of No Confidence on the Mater Dei issue.

His government tackled the Mater Dei issue and last Monday he gave a full explanation how his government had negotiated with Skanska. He feels that the people agree with the way he tackled the issue but now the Opposition has come out with a No Confidence motion.

He can state a lot of things about the Opposition and the way it tackled the Mater Dei issue when in office: the MLP shares a great deal of the responsibility for what went wrong.

The country could not continue using St Luke’s Hospital: it was old and could not be upgraded further. The original government decision was to create a new small complementary hospital to specialise in Mediterranean diseases.

The negotiations with Skanska were long and difficult and as a reward government is now being faced with a No Confidence motion. However this motion will boomerang into a motion of No Confidence in Dr Sant.

The deficit and creating jobs

Dr Gonzi was asked about the deficit problem. He said it seems that the government will reach its stated target of cutting the deficit down to Lm95 million, although there is still some time left to the end of the year.

One must consider that the government has been faced with the necessity of additional unexpected expenses such as that for Dar Malta in Brussels and especially the rise in the price of oil.

Dr Gonzi said he is very worried by the increase in oil prices and the government intends to balance this additional expenditure. It will fork over its own share but the people must do their bit as well.

At present the government is considering how best to lighten the burden of this additional expense, which will be borne by households, as there is no way the government can take up the additional Lm9 million that Enemalta will spend as a result of higher oil prices on its own.

Even though he is satisfied that the deficit target will be reached, Dr Gonzi said we could have done even better if government entities had made more cost savings.

The government intends to stimulate specific sectors of the economy such as attracting pharmaceutical companies and more films to Malta thus increasing jobs.

A caller warned the government not to tax those who are not lazy. As from next year, he announced, all those who register for work will be sent for retraining and those who refuse will be struck off the register. He accepted that there are abuses in this sector. Those who do not abuse the system have nothing to be afraid of he said.