The Nationalist government had sharply played down various Labour proposals but has now taken up another of them and made it its own, Marie Louis Coleiro Preca, MLP spokesperson for social solidarity, said in a statement.

It was positive that the National Euro Changeover Committee was to be transformed into an agency which would protect consumer interests but the decision also showed the extent to which the Nationalist government does not have the will to act on behalf of consumers, she said.

It was the Labour Party which had forced the government to move but on the other hand the setting up of the agency would not be enough to set consumers’ minds at rest. In spite of existing legislation the government had over many years ignored the most practical aspects of consumer protection.