The Nationalist Party and the Labour Party on Sunday traded statements criticising each other about a scheduled meeting with regard to the government's Vision 2050.

The PN said it is shameful that Prime Minister Robert Abela today tried to exploit a matter of national interest to repeat the false claim spread by Super One yesterday - that the PN will somehow not be contributing to the Vision Malta 2050 process.

The Opposition had a meeting scheduled with the responsible Minister to present its observations and proposals before the consultation deadline. That meeting, however, was postponed by the Government itself - not by the PN, the party said.

Both sides are now set to meet in a week and a half, on a new date given to the PN.

Either the Prime Minister does not communicate with his Minister for the Economy, or else he prefers to keep deceiving people, thinking he can score political points by lying about the Opposition.

This morning, Robert Abela accused the Opposition of failing to provide feedback as part of the consultation process on Vision 2050, when he should also know that there is an agreement for the PN to first present its submissions to the Government before these are published.

In fact, on 12 November - the new date agreed after the meeting initially planned for October was postponed to November by the Government - the Opposition delegation will be giving a presentation to representatives of the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry for the Economy outlining the PN's position on Vision 2050 before it is published.

This meeting will reciprocate a similar one held earlier, when the Ministry for the Economy, Enterprise and Strategic Projects presented the details of Vision Malta 2050 to a PN delegation. At that time, both sides agreed that the PN would proceed in the same way, with the PN presentation to take place ten days later.

It is clear that Abela's comments this morning were nothing more than an attempt to score political points by twisting a matter of national importance into a partisan issue.

Abela also lied this morning when he claimed it was untrue that the Labour Government reduced capital expenditure in this budget, the PN said. The financial estimates published by his Government clearly show a reduction of more than €100 million in capital spending compared to last year.

Rather than face the truth, Robert Abela went back more than ten years to try to mislead the public, comparing the figures to 2013 instead of to last year's capital expenditure - as if he's forgotten that Labour has been in government for almost 15 years.

While Maltese and Gozitan families continue to feel the strain of the cost of living and the lack of a plan for the future, the Prime Minister keeps inventing stories to try to bury his own failures.

The PN appealed to Abela to be honest with the Maltese and Gozitan people, and to stop saying things he knows are untrue just to gain political points out of panic.

The PN said it will continue to put forward serious and genuine proposals for the country's future, while refusing to let anyone twist the facts or lie to cover up this Government's lack of vision.

In reply, the Labour Party said this is what you expect from an Opposition "works in progress" It is a known fact that the Nationalist Party has still not submitted its position on the Malta Vision 2050. The Nationalist Party does not deny the fact that it has not sent its submission, the PL said.

The Nationalist Party remained silent after almost two months of extension that it requested on a national vision that must be implemented by different governments for the benefit of the Maltese and Gozitan people. It cannot be denied that the Nationalist Party is failing one deadline after another. The audited accounts weren't submitted by the Nationalist Party for a number of years and the Leader of the Opposition failed his own deadline too.

Last week Alex Borg published a table consisting of a simple breakdown of his leadership campaign's expenditure. The expenditure consisted in just four lines signed by himself instead of an accountant. He also did not find anyone to prepare the PN's pre-budget document, the PL said.

The Leader of the Opposition said that his party is not obliged to present the pre-budget document, despite being corrected by one of his "colleagues", who did not agree with him. From the Leader of the Opposition "works in progress" you expect nothing more than failed deadlines, the PL said.