Good prospects for Malta-Libya agreement

Relations between Malta and Libya were excellent and there were good prospects for the signing of a Malta-Libya Friendship and Partnership Agreement.

Giving an overview of the work of his ministry during the Budget debate, Foreign Minister Tonio Borg told Parliament yesterday that the possible agreement was discussed last week when he visited Tripoli for talks with his counterpart Mousa Kousa.

Dr Borg said that visas issued to Libyan nationals had increased from 7,500 in 2008 to 12,300 during the first 10 months of 2010. He announced that the Citizenship and Expatriate Department was to move to Sa Maison.

He said Malta had played a significant role in the Framework Agreement reached between the European Commission and Libya governing relations between the two sides. Malta was also backing the view that Libya should be financially assisted to enhance its border controls in order to control migration.

Malta had played such an important role in the resolution of the conflict between Switzerland and Libya that President Gaddafi had invited Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and Dr Borg to Libya to express his appreciation for Malta’s endeavours. Malta, he said, had strongly stressed before the Council of Ministers that the Schengen Agreement was not to be used for political motives.

Dr Borg said Malta was also enjoying a ‘special relationship’ with Italy. Among developments over the past months, was the decision taken by Italy whereby Malta was removed from a black list in company taxation. An agreement on health services was also signed, and negotiations are underway on an updated cultural agreement.

When he spoke on Malta’s activities within the EU, Dr Borg said that Malta should be proud of its track record in that it had the lowest number of infringement proceedings in the bloc. From 67 in 2007, these have gone down to 16 this year. However, the minister stressed, when Malta disagreed with the interpretation of EU directives given by the EU executive, it would defend its corner even if this meant going before the European Court of Justice.

Dr Borg said that 55 projects were currently benefiting from €296 million in EU Structural Funds. Five projects were receiving €175 million of Cohesion Funds and 42 projects were benefiting from €76 million of European Social Funds. All this showed good administration by the government to tap EU funding opportunities.

Minister Borg said almost 900 migrants had been resettled in other countries, also with the support of UNHCR. The majority of these, 540, were resettled in the USA and 310 in EU countries.

Malta was also making its voice heard in the drafting of Directives. He informed the House that Malta is insisting on the reduction of the term required by refugees and persons under humanitarian protection, for them to acquire long-term resident status. This would ensure that refugees and persons under humanitarian protection in Malta would acquire such status before the lapse of five years and this would enable them to circulate within the EU. Malta had also, with the agreement of unions and the opposition, obtained a bloc minority on the working-time directive thereby allowing an employee to opt out on overtime.

Malta had also insisted on the European External Action Service having a meaningful presence of the citizens of all EU member states. He said 126 persons were working within the EU institutions as translators or interpreters.

Dr Borg renewed Malta’s calls for progress towards peace in the Middle East, saying Malta would never accept that Palestine would be left out without a territory. However, Israel would always find Malta’s support for existence. Malta had even taken a stand in the EU to ensure that other member states recognise Palestinian representatives in their territory.

Malta had opened new embassies in Ramallah and Tel Aviv to assist in obtaining relevant information at source.

Malta, he added, would next week be hosting the first regional Mediterranean conference of the United Nations’ Alliance of Civilisations, to be attended by a number of Foreign Ministers. Malta has also continuously pursued the setting up of the Union for the Mediterranean, and was represented through one of the six Deputy Secretary Generals out of 43 member states.

The highlight however, would be the 5+5 Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Malta next year. This would see the participation of Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, French President Nicholas Sarkozy and Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi.

He said that19,000 individuals had benefitted from amendments to citizenship legislation between1989 and 2010. Scholarships have been awarded to Maltese-Australians to study in Malta. A second initiative to be undertaken this year was the creation of a council to serve as a point of reference to all the Maltese living abroad.

Good relations have been established with Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia which were aspiring to become EU members. Malta was in favour of Turkey joining the EU because this had a lot to offer with regards to security and defence of Europe.

Discussions were held with China to recognise units studied at the University of Malta. Trade between Malta and China had doubled between 2005 and 2010. Malta was the only country in the eurozone to increase trade with China during 2009.

Also taking part in the debate were Labour MPs Luciano Busuttil and Noel Farrugia and Nationalist MPs Frans Agius, David Agius and Francis Zammit Dimech.