Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning said that although the government is very proud to lead the EU Council Presidency, the administration will remain focused, with its feet on the ground.

Speaking during a phone call interview on the Labour Party radio station, Dr Muscat said that while leading the EU Presidency, the government still has to continue its work in leading the country.

He praised the government's achievement in reaching record unemployment statistics, insisting that these results were deemed impossible by the previous administration. He said the all-time low in unemployment was reached in less than four years.

"Unemployment went down from 7,000 to 3,000. This is the lowest in Malta's history and numbers no one believed we could reach," he added. Dr Muscat said that these results come at a time when the government kept its promise to reduce utility bills and while the economy was still experiencing growth. "This government has managed to reverse the unemployment trend," he said.

Despite all of this success, the Prime Minister said that the PN Opposition never stopped criticizing every move the government makes. On the increased prices of petrol and diesel, he said that this was due to international phenomena and Malta still managed to keep the price among the lowest in Europe.

On the case regarding Jason Azzopardi and the allegations made by Minister Owen Bonnici, Joseph Muscat said that the things that were said under oath are believable and the Opposition leader should not persist in ignoring the facts. 

In reply, the Nationalist Party said that Muscat’s boasting about the rise in the price of fuel shows how detached he is from reality. If for people who have companies in Panama a four cents per litre rise is nothing, for people on the minimum wage, on a pension or doing sacrifices to run a family this is a substantial rise, the PN said.

Instead of explaining why ministries spent more money than budgeted and why the OPM used up €1.6 million more than estimated on travelling, Muscat chose to repeat the “lies said by Minister Bonnici”, who will have to answer for them in court.

The Maltese and Gozitan people are paying for the government’s corruption and abuse, the PN said.