Prime Minister Joseph Muscat in Brussels on Friday. Photo: DOI

The Prime Minister’s statement on irregular migration at the end of an EU summit suggested he was either oblivious to past council meeting conclusions or else he needed to clarify himself, the Opposition leader said yesterday.

Simon Busuttil was reacting to a statement on Friday night in which the government hailed the EU summit conclusions as a major step forward on irregular migration.

This statement said that for the very first time European leaders had accepted in principle the sharing of responsibility on the issue of irregular migration.

Contacted yesterday, Dr Busuttil said there was absolutely no mention on burden sharing in the summit’s conclusion.

He argued that the only reference made was about “fair sharing of responsibility”, which was no new development as it had been repeatedly stated in summit conclusions over the previous 10 years.

The Prime Minister should clarify his statement

“The Prime Minister should clarify his statement because he either came back with nothing new or he has not been reading summit conclusions for the past decade, or both,” the Opposition leader said.

A government spokesman said this was another step forward in Malta’s quest to raise awareness in favour of a coordinated European approach. He also pointed out that the summit conclusion referred to the “effective implementation” of the “principles of solidarity and fair sharing of responsibility”, in accordance with the EU Treaty.

In the run up to the summit, Malta had backed the call made by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi for the EU border control agency (Frontex) to take over the Mare Nostrum humanitarian operation being manned by Italy.

Though there were indications that Italy would move such a proposal during the summit, there was no such reference in the final declaration.

Nevertheless, the government spokesman said the fact Italy would be assuming the EU’s rotating presidency as from next month, would bode well, as irregular migration would surely be given top priority.