Immigration rules could change to allow frontier states struggling with migration flows to transfer immigrants to other member states if a European Commission proposal to be made today is taken on board.
The news emerges as French Immigration Minister Brice Hortefeux announced that France will be taking 80 immigrants from Malta next year.
If approved by all 27 member states, the Commission proposal would mark a breakthrough for Malta, even if the changes planned include some additional burdens.
A draft document, seen by The Times yesterday, shows that the Commission will be proposing a total revision of the rules related to asylum seekers, known as the Dublin II regulation.
It is being suggested that member states like Malta, that are evidently overburdened with asylum claims, will be temporarily exempt from the rules.
This will mean that, in case of a large influx of illegal immigrants, Malta will not have to deal with processing all the asylum applications and the applicant immigrants will be passed on to other EU countries.
So far, it was not clear how this system will work in practice, however, the Commisison should be proposing a proper mechanism as part of its asylum package.
According to the present Dublin II rules, asylum applications have to be dealt with by the member state where the asylum seekers arrive first.
This rule is placing a heavy burden on Malta, which, due to its geographical position, is having to process a large number of asylum applications and, consequently, having to detain thousands of illegal immigrants every year.
The government has been piling pressure on the EU to introduce changes to the asylum rules for the past four years.
Apart from burden sharing, the proposal will grant more rights to asylum seekers. According to the draft, Brussels will be proposing establishing common EU rules on detention of would-be refugees, making it easier for them to work while their applications are being processed.
The proposals recommend that asylum seekers should not have to wait longer than six months after submitting an asylum application before being allowed to work.
The Commission's proposals include extending EU rules on the treatment of asylum seekers to not only cover people seeking refugee status but also those seeking subsidiary protection on humanitarian cases, which affects the majority of asylum seekers in Malta.
Under Maltese rules, asylum seekers are granted the right to work after a maximum of 18 months from when they apply for asylum status.
All the proposals will require the uananimous backing of every member state to enter into force. EU sources described the proposed asylum package as "ambitious" as it would not be easy to persuade all 27 member states to accept the changes.
Immigration was on Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil's agenda during the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee yesterday when he harshly criticised the lack of solidarity from the EU.
In reply, Mr Hortefeux announced France will be taking 80 immigrants from Malta next year.
The committee was debating the French presidency results in the area of immigration during the second half of this year.
Referring to the Migration and Asylum Pact, agreed upon last October, Dr Busuttil pressed Mr Hortefeux on when and how he envisaged the implementation of the burden-sharing clause, inserted in the pact, would facilitate the movement of refugees from countries facing a disproportionate migratory pressure to other EU member states.
"I find it an intolerable ambiguity to see the US taking about 400 immigrants from Malta and not one single EU country following this example of solidarity," he told Mr Hortefeux in fluent French.
Turning to cooperation with third countries, Dr Busuttil said that, so far, this only seemed to exist on a bilateral basis, noting that Spain had established a very effective network with Senegal. On the other hand, he said no cooperation on immigration existed with Libya.
Mr Hortefeux said he was well aware of Malta's concerns and had raised the matter directly with the Libyan Foreign Affairs Minister last week during the Euro-African conference on migration and development.