The Nationalist Party has called on the government to take the necessary measures to avoid being placed under the excessive deficit procedure by the European Commission.

Tonio Fenech, the Opposition spokesman for finance, told a news conference this morning that the Nationalist Party had already warned the government not to inflate the deficit and take this procedure lightly.

The government failed to convince the Commission that it would be in a position to lower the deficit and should immediately take the necessary measures to lower its expenditure to ensure that the Commission started to believe it.

In a statement, the Labour Party said that what Mr Fenech was saying breached all limits of political decency as it was an attempt to damage the country in international fora.

This was the worst type of politics of the past which the people opted to do away with on March 9. It seemed, however, that PN leader Simon Busuttil and Mr Fenech had not yet got the message.