One could no longer afford to pick and choose and avoid what would have a negative impact when it came to pensions reform, Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia said this morning.

Dr Farrugia was addressing the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, which met to discuss the pensions strategy drawn up by the Pensions Strategy Group and launched for consultation last month.

The minister emphasised that there could be no effective reform if all social partners simply chose what was beneficial to them, noting that while some elements of the reform would be beneficial to their interests, there would invariably be others whose immediate impact would be negative.

He said that if the changes implemented this time round end up being cosmetic in nature, the upcoming reform would have the same problem that plagued the previous one.

"The easiest thing to do would be for everyone to state their wish list and implement it, but that would destroy what we set out to do," the minister said.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna stressed that when it came to pensions, one had to strike a balance between pensioners' income and workers' own.

"There is no way out of this. To improve the situation of one, you must impose a burden on the other," he said.

The minister also noted that while the pensions reform looked towards the future, there was no lobby group defending the interest of future pensioners - today's young people.

The strong lobby group, he said, represented present pensioners, adding that if all their demands - including on service pensions and other similar pensions - were met, Malta "would need a bailout like Greece."

Prof. Scicluna also said that one should not make broad statements on poverty among pensioners, noting that while many were cash poor, they were often asset rich since they would own their own home.

The MCESD members' own contributions were made in private, as is custom. At the opening of the meeting, MCESD chairman John Bencini stressed that consensus would lend more weight to the council's own recommendations on pensions reform.