The national conference on the adoption of the euro was the right occasion to gauge Malta’s preparations to join the eurozone, a target that is set for 1 January 2008.

The comments given to journalists by Benjamin Angel, a member of the team led by European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia, indicate that Malta is on track to meet the criteria established by the EC for the country to replace the lira with the euro.

His words should be of encouragement to the Maltese government and also to the National Euro Changeover Committee, although the road is still long and a lot of work still needs to be done in the 400 days that remain between now and 1 January 2008.

From the government’s point of view, the main concern at present is the inflation rate, which is still higher than that laid down by the Maastricht criteria. The inflation rate seems to have established itself at just over three per cent over the past few months, and although it is already a good result that it has not continued to spiral upwards, at the same time it has not started to come down.

In his address at the conference, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that “we are reasonably confident that a sustainable rate of inflation is achievable by the time we request another report towards the end of the first half of 2007”.

We have been hearing these and similar statements for quite some time now, and still the inflation rate remains more or less the same. The government therefore needs to work harder to achieve its goals. Time is passing, and the target date is getting closer.

In the same way that the government has worked hard to bring Malta in line with the other criteria that a country needs, to be accepted in the eurozone – the public debt and the deficit – the government needs to do the same to curb inflation and bring it down to accepted levels.

In his address, Dr Gonzi also mentioned the results of a Eurobarometer survey that, for the first time, has shown that the majority of the Maltese are in favour of the switch to the euro. But he added that their major concern is that the process might lead to an increase in prices.

This fear was a common factor in many of the countries that made the transition from their currency to the euro over the past years. So, as a nation, we are no different from the rest. Yet, the NECC is doing its best to allay this concern and is working hard with all the parties concerned to avoid this happening in Malta.

The NECC’s recent agreement with the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises is a step in the right direction in this regard. However, even here the NECC must and should embark on a comprehensive campaign to educate traders and consumers alike on this particular issue.

We understand that the NECC is planning such a campaign, that is to start next year. What we hope is that such information is forthcoming as early as possible and in the simplest of terms so that everyone will understand what should take place.

Within this context, Labour leader Alfred Sant’s admonition – “my conviction is that we still need to do much more to ensure that, by the time the euro is introduced, we will have the best administrative apparatus to dampen and control any unjustified inflationary effects” – is a valid point.

Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech said that the link between the changeover to the euro and higher prices is a false perception – 69 per cent of the Maltese believe that the euro introduction will bring about abuses by retailers.

This means that the government has a lot of work on its hands to prove that this perception is really false.