EU’s 2015 challenge: creating jobs and investment – Sant

It is in Malta’s interest that the European Union overcomes the challenge of creating new jobs and investment, Labour MEP Alfred Sant said.

Arguing that Malta’s economic growth heavily depended on how European economies performed, Sant said it was in Malta’s interest that the EU further invested in its citizens. Even though Malta’s economic growth has been greater than elsewhere in Europe, Malta’s economy required as well a robust European economy.

Addressing an S&D conference organised by Sant’s office in Valletta, the head of the Maltese delegation said that the EU’s biggest challenge during 2015, will be that of creating jobs and investment.

Sant said that even though the EU had once been considered as an engine of growth, the EU had been experiencing stagnation even before the global recession of 2008.

“In the euro zone especially, governments have been applying the cure of cutting on their budget deficits. But this policy of austerity has served to further depress growth prospects. Investment has not taken off, to the contrary,” he said.

“Those who, like German Chancellor Merkel, believe that keeping deficits under control is the key to future prosperity, still insist that fiscal consolidation cannot be swept aside. Those who believe that governments must push on their own for growth, not wait till the private sector starts to invest more, argue that the priority now must be for governments to spend on investments. Whoever wins the argument needs to be right. Otherwise, Europe will be negatively affected for many more years to come.”