EU commissioner Gunther Verheugen said this evening he felt ashamed, as a European citizen, to see bigger and richer EU states not willing to implement the burden sharing principle and help Malta.

Replying to questions by The Times during a news conference just before he left Malta after a one-day visit, the commissioner said the burden sharing principle is “obviously not working”.

He said that Malta was right to expect other EU countries to share the burden as it was not a filter for the rest of Europe.

He promised to encourage EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot, “to put on the table ambitious commission proposals that will effectively solve the problem and will ensure that Malta does not have to carry the burden alone”.

He said: “If this had to happen in an average German town with 350,000 people, a revolution would start immediately.”

However, when asked whether he agreed with a recent Labour Party suggestion that Malta should utilise its veto on a number of issues in order to drive home the point on its problems on illegal migration, Mr Verheugen replied that “no responsible government would consider this unless it is the last resort”.