Foreign Minister Joe Borg said yesterday significant progress had been made in the ongoing negotiations with the European Union and he was certain that all the remaining issues would be cleared by next month's Copenhagen summit.
Reacting to a statement made by the president of the EU council, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fog Rasmussen, who warned Malta and some other candidate countries to stop making too many demands or risk missing the enlargement, Dr Borg said: "Mr Rasmussen is in the middle of tough negotiations and therefore his comments have to be taken in this context".
Dr Borg said one had to appreciate that the role of the Danish presidency included responsibility for ensuring negotiations were concluded in time for the EU summit to be held next month.
However, Dr Borg said he was certain Malta could make it on time.
"Malta will be a member of the European Union on May 1, 2004, if the Maltese people decide in favour."
Malta's chief negotiator, Richard Cachia Caruana, said that two informal consultation sessions with the presidency in recent days showed they had a better understanding of Malta's problems.
"We look forward to the proposals which the presidency, on its own initiative, will present to each candidate country over the next few days as a basis for resolving the outstanding issues. We are hopeful that reasonable solutions can be found for our outstanding issues and we have assured the presidency we will show the same flexibility that we are sure the Union will itself show."
He said full political commitment existed on Malta's part to successfully conclude its accession negotiations by the established deadlines.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mr Rasmussen said: "There are a number of problems so far as Malta is concerned and I can confirm that Malta is among the countries I warn against building up a huge number of requests because we will not be able to resolve them before the Copenhagen summit".
Malta's demands range from a special package on agriculture to its insistence on retaining a zero VAT rate on foods and medicinals.