Some three years of hard work and sacrifices paid off on Tuesday, when Malta was given the final go-ahead to join the eurozone, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday while launching Malta’s final master plan for the euro changeover.

“It was a greatly satisfying moment,” Dr Gonzi remarked, adding that the country has now begun the final 100-metre dash to euro adoption and that while the news was good, challenges also lay ahead.

Launching the final master plan for the changeover yesterday, Dr Gonzi stressed that the country now had six months of intense work ahead as it prepared for a monumental changeover of hard currency, as well as in mentality.

The master plan published by the National Euro Changeover Committee yesterday includes the announcement of a dehoarding campaign to begin in the near future. The campaign, which follows a previous registration campaign, will encourage those with significant amounts of Maltese lira cash to lodge such cash with financial institutions.

“Malta is quite unique in having the largest amount of cash in circulation per capita of all EU member states,” the master plan states, “and it is therefore very important that this money is channelled back into the banking system, through Lm-denominated bank accounts and investments prior to euro adoption so that this money is automatically converted into euro on E-Day.

“If this were not to happen, it would present a significant logistical problem for the banks and customers to exchange such large sums of money ‘over the counter’ post E-Day.”

The changeover itself, Dr Gonzi stressed, must be done in as inclusive a way as possible, involving each and every segment of society. While the government was determined to control prices and to stamp out any abuse, Dr Gonzi commented, the now obligatory dual pricing regime would be significantly advantageous for consumers, who were now able to compare prices in Malta with those in the rest of Europe.

“Besides the FAIR initiative which is considered even by the Commission as the best price stability agreement ever done, we do investigate all complaints of significant price increases and will keep doing so,” Dr Gonzi added.

“We are also seriously enforcing all the legal provisions with a team of 70 euro assistants who are doing an excellent job in educating retailers and business people while also being strong on cases of non-compliance. We are also closely monitoring prices in over 200 establishments in Malta and Gozo and we will soon be publishing pricing trends for a number of products so that consumers can start comparing average prices with what they actually pay. We also want to empower consumers to stand up and be counted and speak out in cases where they feel they have been wronged.”

Dr Gonzi – flanked by Central Bank Governor Michael C. Bonello, Finance Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech, Joseph FX Zahra and Alan Camilleri from the National Euro Changeover Committee – personally and officially thanked all members of the National Euro Changeover Committee’s working groups, who numbered some 200 individuals for the voluntary work in steering Malta successfully toward E-Day on 1 January.

Representatives of parties involved in the working groups sat behind Dr Gonzi and included union leaders and employers’ representatives.

“We had set ourselves difficult targets, but through the capacity and determination of the Maltese people, we have achieved them,” Dr Gonzi said yesterday. “The Maltese people have been asked to sacrifice for three years and each reform has entailed its own difficulties.”

The development encompassed the political, economic and social spheres, Dr Gonzi explained. Socially, and in light of recent redundancies in the textiles industry, the euro adoption would inspire further confidence in Malta among foreign investors, which, in turn, was expected to lead to the creation of employment opportunities.

“The bottom line,” Dr Gonzi added, “is not the currency itself, but rather the fact that euro adoption will, in the end, lead to more and better jobs for the Maltese people.”

Politically, eurozone membership represents another important step toward full European Union integration, following EU accession itself. Malta, Dr Gonzi added, would soon form part of the group of countries that together constituted one of the world’s strongest economies, if not the strongest.

Economically, Malta’s reputation would be enhanced among potential foreign investors, Dr Gonzi added, while also positively acknowledging yesterday’s upgrade of Malta’s credit rating by Moody’s Investor Service from A3 to A2 following the EU’s final decision on Malta’s eurozone membership on 1 January.

Moreover, the Maltese economy has immediately become more competitive with Maltese banks now accepting euro banknotes deposited by businesses into Maltese lira accounts free of the exchange rate charges normally applicable to foreign currency deposits.