EU summit soon after general election

Soon after the March 8 general election, the Prime Minister will leave the island to represent Malta at an EU summit in Brussels on March 13 and 14.

The gathering of the 27 EU leaders, referred to as the Spring European Council, will be the first under the current six-month Slovenian presidency and will focus on economic and environmental issues.

Just three days after the formation of a new Cabinet of Ministers, the newly elected Prime Minister will meet his counterparts to take stock of the progress being made by member states on the EU Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, setting various benchmarks related to economic growth, the creation of jobs and the environment.

Malta has made significant progress on this strategy. Assessing the island's progress, the European Commission recently stated that Malta is advancing strongly in the area of fiscal sustainability, considered by the EU executive to be a crucial element for achieving more growth and jobs.

The Commission said the implementation efforts in the micro-economic and employment area are more moderate.

During the summit, EU leaders are also expected to discuss and give their go-ahead to the Commission's proposals on climate change and the environment where every member state was given specific targets on renewable energy to be met by 2020.

The Commission is recommending that Malta will have to produce 10 per cent of its energy needs from renewable energy by 2020.