Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil yesterday described the EU migration deal as “half-baked” and not in the best interest of Malta.
Addressing a conference organised by Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola, Dr Busuttil said that while the proposal made by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was a step in the right direction, the agreement reached by member states on Thursday night was not fair to Malta.
Dr Busuttil argued that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat should have tried to get a better deal.
While agreeing on the concept suggested by the Commission of relocating about 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, member states rejected the plan of mandatory quotas. Instead, they agreed to implement the system on a voluntary basis.
Also, Malta was not put on the same level as Italy and Greece, because the Commission insisted Malta was not facing an emergency.
Malta should have been put at a par with Italy and Greece due to its small area and density
Dr Busuttil said that, as a result of the deal, Malta ended up in the ironic situation of having to host about 300 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece but was unable to relocate the asylum seekers that it already hosted.
“The PN thinks that Malta should have been put at a par with Italy and Greece due to its small area and dense population.
“Bearing in mind the high number of asylum seekers already on the island and the fact that they have nowhere to go, since as Malta is an island, we strongly believe that the Commission should have included it in its proposal,” Dr Busuttil said.
He expressed disappointment at the rejection of mandatory burden sharing by Member States and said that recent schemes showed that voluntary burden sharing did not work.
Dr Busuttil acknowledged that the debate on migration in Malta had become more civilised.
“We think that this debate should not be politicised and the PN does not want to score any political points over it.
“We have also offered our full cooperation to the government.”
However, he highlighted the “difference in attitude” when Labour was in Opposition, when it was “at war with the then PN government over its insistence on burden sharing and whether this should be voluntary or mandatory”. Dr Busuttil said that the PN was disappointed with the way the EU was dealing with migration.
Speaking about his experience at a meeting of the EPP heads of State and of government in Brussels last Thursday, he said “the current way in which certain EU leaders speak about migrants does not make you feel very European”.
“The EU sounds ridiculous when you hear heads of State bickering on who should take who and how many. I must confess that this debate was not music to my ears,” Dr Busuttil said.
In his opinion, the EU had to remove its borders mindset if it wanted to progress on the migration issue.
In a statement reacting to Dr Busuttil’s comments, Labour criticised the PN record in government over migration, stating that the party had not managed to get anything for Malta.
On the other hand, Labour said, Dr Muscat managed to convince the EU that Malta should be helped in case of an emergency.