The roadmap devised by Malta, Italy, Cyprus and Greece on how illegal immigration should be tackled will be considered as part of the EU's new five-year action plan in justice and home affairs.
The proposals of the four countries, known as the Quadro Group, were officially presented to the Justice and Home Affairs Council last week and were well received by both the Commission and the EU Presidency, Council sources said.
However, the Quadro proposals will not be acted upon immediately but will be used as the basis of a wider discussion on the drawing up of a new action plan, which will be known as the Stockholm Programme.
"Unfortunately, things in the EU do not move as fast as some countries may wish because consent among 27 different member states on a sensitive issue such as migration is not easy," an EU official said. The initiative by the four southern member states was very well received at last week's Council meeting but both the Commission and the Presidency said all the proposals would be taken into account when preparing the Stockholm Programme. This included further steps in the implementation of the European Asylum and Migration Pact agreed last year, he official added.
The EU's current five-year strategic plan in the justice and home affairs area, known as the Hague Programme, expires in December and the EU has already started drawing up its ideas on a new one.
These will have to be discussed and agreed upon unanimously with all member states. The new action plan will be a major and important negotiating task for the incoming Swedish Presidency, which will take over the six-month rotating Presidency in July.
This new programme is also expected to be one of the main items on the agenda of the EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot who will be in Malta on March 13 to "see with his own eyes" the migration problem the island is facing and discuss the thorny issue with the government.
Following last week's Council meeting, Mr Barrot was pressed by journalists to say what the EU was doing to help southern member states, including Malta, that have been facing heavy flows of immigrants landing on their coasts.
Mr Barrot's response was that "we heeded the calls for help and wasted no time in providing them with a response in consequence".
He pointed out that the Asylum Agency, called upon by the Quadro Group and the Commission, had also ensured all affected countries benefitted from the European Fund for Refugees and the External Borders Fund.
Questioned on Malta's interest in hosting the new agency, both the Commission and the Presidency preferred not to comment at this stage. Czech Home Affairs Minister Ivan Langer said that at the moment it was more important to define the mission and the task of the agency as opposed to its location.
On his part, Mr Barrot said: "Let's take things one step at a time!"