Malta’s Finance Minister Edward Scicluna welcomed an assurance from his euro-area counterparts that requests from smaller nations for direct bank aid from the currency bloc’s rescue fund will be treated no differently than those from large countries.

“We are happy that our point was acknowledged, and received backing from Luxembourg,’ Scicluna said in an interview after euro finance chiefs met in Luxembourg today. The assurance comes as a relief to Malta, he said.

‘‘Malta in fact is shouldering the highest burden with a contribution which totals some 3 percent of its GDP, so tonight we can say that small member states have achieved peace of mind,’’ he said.

– Karl Stagno-Navarra, Thursday, 20th June, 2013