The Prime Minister has sat squarely in the socialist corner in telling Europe that austerity does not work, will not work and should be done away with.

 Speaking during the Labour Party’s General Council yesterday, it sounded like Dr Muscat was going to go off on a rant against the EU. You could almost be forgiven in thinking that he was going to turn euro-sceptic. Let us set the record straight, he did nothing of the sort, but it sounded like he was going to.

What Dr Muscat did do was prod the European Union. A ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ moment. Dr Muscat told the EU, in no uncertain terms, that it needs to wake up from its slumber and take some radical decisions.

Dr Muscat said it is clear that austerity does not work. As with every economical conundrum, there will be those that say ‘aye’ and those that will say ‘nay’, that is how economics works - it is a complex art of drawing up one formula and then having someone drawing up the complete anti-thesis to counter it.

But Dr Muscat is right. Just before it was enlarged in 2004, the EU was young, vibrant and powerful. It was full of energy and optimism in telling young hopefuls like Malta that we could make it within the bloc.

But somewhere, the EU became clunky and cumbersome. In the build-up to the 2008-2009, crisis it had become a veritable ageing dinosaur more preoccupied with the grand political experiment with democracy, rather than policy implementation on a micro and macro level.

Dr Muscat has called on the EU to adopt a common sense approach to dealing with the issues that still blight Europe - most notably the economic crisis, which despite our best attempts at denial, is lingering and eating away at our collective social fabric.

He said that the fact that austerity is not working does not only harm the ‘problem’ countries, but the European Union as a whole - he is 100% correct.

It might sound easy coming from a country that has one of the best performing economies and one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, but Dr Muscat is right. Austerity has not really worked and we need to find another solution.

Malta might be the smallest European Union member, but it is also one of the best performing countries within the bloc. We are doing well and perhaps some people in the corridors of power of Europe ought to look to Malta’s example in terms of economic performance and social welfare. Joseph Muscat now needs to tread carefully. Reputations within Europe are forged over time, he has got the right idea and he is putting forward valid suggestions, but he must get his tone right. Political relationships are the same everywhere. While Malta is regarded as a sort of micro miracle within the EU, we must be careful in how we level our criticism. No one likes a smart-Alec, and while we should offer advice and share our success story, we should not come across as being one.