Malta’s membership of the European Union was proving highly beneficial to Malta, nationally and for different sectors, Prime Minister and Nationalist Party leader Lawrence Gonzi said at a party activity in Marsaxlokk, marking the anniversary of independence.

People could also see how negative the Labour Party had been in its campaign trying to scare the Maltese from EU membership. As the MLP had tried to deceive about EU membership, it was doing the same today about other sectors.

EU funds were helping in many projects and initiatives for the economy, the environment, education, young people and the standard of living.

He referred to investments already done in Marsaxlokk to help fishermen and make them more competitive. Until recently, shipping craft owners had to go to Sicily to maintain their vessels; now they can do it at Marsaxlokk.

Even the roads showed the benefits of the PN’s policies. Arterial and residential roads were being built. After three years of membership, the people knew that Alfred Sant’s scaremongering had been deceptive because nothing that had been predicted actually happened.

We were to fight other people’s wars, he had said, and we were to be inundated with foreign workers. None of this had happened.

Instead there was economic and financial certainty in the country and heavy investors, such as Tecom, had been attracted to Malta, and were building SmartCity which would create 5,600 jobs.

The Labour Party had said that after EU membership, Church schools would not receive any assistance. In fact, government aid to these schools had increased. Alfred Sant had said Malta would get just Lm1.5 million in aid from the EU. The figure instead was EUR855 million. This all showed how unfounded and deceptive the Labour campaign had been.