Malta yesterday insisted that although it regrets last week's Irish referendum rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, the vote must be respected.
Speaking to The Times following a meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg, dominated by discussion on the Irish vote, Minister for Foreign Affairs Tonio Borg said that "Ireland played by the rules and its 'no' must be respected".
"Although we do not agree with the result, we still think that Ireland played within the rules of the game and it must be fully respected. We can't argue that because Ireland is a small country it should not block the process of ratification. These are the rules and we must stick to them.
"As a small member state, we (Malta) must insist on this as unanimity is the guarantee provided by the EU so that small- and medium-sized countries can safeguard their interests," he said.
Dr Borg said there are no quick-fix solutions at the moment and the EU needs more time to decide how best to proceed.
"However, no one is proposing that we should move forward without Ireland or that we should create a two-tier EU. We must try to seek a solution on how to unblock this impasse with the Irish on board.
"We agreed that the ratification process in the other member states should continue for the moment and we will see where we arrive with that," he said.
Yesterday's discussion was the first at this level following the Irish rejection of the treaty which according to EU rules needs unanimous approval to come into force.
EU foreign ministers were given a presentation by Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin on last Friday's no vote. However, no concrete solutions were proposed.
Although one of the suggestions being made is for Ireland to hold another referendum in a few months' time, sources close to yesterday's meeting told The Times that the Irish government is still "non-committal" on this possibility.
During the meeting, member states who have still not ratified the treaty assured their colleagues that they will continue with the ratification process. The UK, considered to be one of the most eurosceptic member states, said it should be in a position to conclude the process by the end of the week.
The EU was hoping that the ratification by all its 27 member states would be concluded in time to start implementing the new rules as from next January. However, following the Irish rejection this time frame has been completely derailed.
"What is almost sure is that we can forget our sixth seat at the European Parliament," Minister Borg remarked referring to the negotiated addition of a Maltese MEP following the next European election scheduled for June 2009.
The EU discussion will now move on to EU leaders meeting in Brussels for their mid-year summit later on this month.