Joseph Muscat and EU President Donald Tusk seemed to echo the same sentiments last Friday at the end of the EU Council in Brussels, which was one of the most acrimonious and tense summits in years.

According to reports, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi rebuked fellow EU leaders on Thursday for failing to agree a plan to take in 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy and Greece, saying they were not worthy of calling themselves Europeans.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told the Italian Prime Minister she had no intention of contributing to any migrant solution.

“If this is your idea of Europe, you can keep it. Either there’s solidarity or don’t waste our time,” Mr Renzi charged back.

Italy has almost single-handedly tackled the boat migrant crisis in the central Mediterranean. Without Italy, the seas around us would have turned into one big cemetery.

It hasn’t just saved thousands of migrants. The Italians have also offered them temporary refuge. So it was no surprise that Italy and Greece have been calling for assistance to relocate some of the asylum seekers.

But what we saw during the EU summit was a veritable ‘not in my back yard’ exercise. Much of the tension appeared to be about ensuring the migration plan was voluntary, not mandatory, as the European Commission had initially suggested.

In fact, leaders of 23 of the 28 countries agreed to do their best to relocate migrants from countries on the frontline, provided it did not come across as being imposed by Brussels.

Dr Muscat offered to take in a number of migrants from the two countries currently shouldering the crisis – at the expense of pressing arguments on Malta’s size? – and talked up the agreement as a major breakthrough. But in reality the EU Council clearly illustrated a fragmented Europe losing its values.

The migration crisis in the Mediterranean makes the biggest mockery of the EU claim to always stand by those in need of help. While leaders posture on the world stage calling for solidarity, with the other face they are telling people it’s not their problem to drum up nationalistic support in their home countries.

The only thing they seem to agree upon is their quest to build walls and create structures to keep asylum seekers out. A Europe of solidarity indeed!

It is not just the migration issue that shows a fractious Europe. Bitter wrangling and dirty media wars have characterised the Greek euro crisis.

On Friday, some EU leaders suggested it would be better for Greece to leave the euro irrespective of the dramatic economic consequences.

On the other hand, the Greeks have wasted air miles trying to shift the goalposts. Too many economic and social disparities remain between the rich north and the poorer south and east. Europe is proving to the world it is unable to fix its own problems.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that the EU has grown too large, and the beauty in diversity and backgrounds of 28 states is fast proving be the bloc’s Achilles’ heel.

The creation of a community of European states is the most laudable project Europe has created. Malta took its finest political decision when it voted to join in 2003. But too many countries remain focused on their domestic needs.

As Europeans, the Maltese should care about the future of Greece as much as Britain should care about the Mediterranean migration crisis.

Differences will always remain but what we witnessed in Brussels last Friday risks derailing the very core of the European project.

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