France plans to take 99 asylum seekers from Malta in the coming weeks, as part of the pilot project secured by EU leaders at the end of the Brussels summit.

The details will be finalised on Friday when French Immigration Minister Eric Besson flies to Malta for a one-day meeting with Home Affairs Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici.

Last Friday, Malta secured a concrete pledge inserted into the summit's conclusions so that refugees and beneficiaries of humanitarian status could relocate to member states which choose to accept them on a voluntary basis.

Details of the way the pilot project will operate have yet to emerge but a ministry spokesman said more details should be in hand this week.

Immigration will be high on the government's agenda this week, as Dr Mifsud Bonnici will also host Swedish Migration Tobias Billström tomorrow and Tuesday to discuss the EU Stockholm programme, before Sweden takes over the EU Presidency on July 1.

This programme is a five-year strategy with precise goals in the areas of freedom, justice and security. The plan has to be endorsed by member states by the end of this year.

It should also lead to increased solidarity between member states and a more permanent burden-sharing mechanism.

Currently, the EU cannot oblige member states to take asylum seekers, but the blueprint of the Stockholm Programme states "there should be a common area of protection and solidarity through a single procedure and uniform international protection rules"

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