Differences between EU and African countries had been narrowed more than expected during the first day of the Valletta Summit on Migration, a cautiously optimistic Prime Minister said late last night.
“The end result was more convergence than I excepted. Though there are still areas of divergence, there is a much more proactive attitude,” Joseph Muscat said.
Addressing the media at the end of a working dinner, he described the summit as a “turning point”, saying that for the first time the EU’s returns policy was no longer “taboo”.
“The fact that all European leaders made reference to this point meant that the message was conveyed loud and clear to African leaders.” He described today’s signing of a trust fund to develop a social and economic infrastructure in Africa as the first strong signal that “the EU is putting its money where its mouth is after a very long time”.
Meanwhile, this newspaper has learnt that a controversial proposal to have EU-run refugee holding centres in Africa was never on the agenda of the summit.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an EU official said the controversy may have been the result of “confusion” over the work of an EU-run multipurpose centre in Niger.
“The Niger centre serves as an information point and it may have led to the misconception that Europe wanted to create refugee transit camps in Africa,” he said.
Technical talks preceding the summit had been long and at times very tense, he added, as countries from both continents grappled with each other’s fears.
The summit is expected to end this afternoon as differences emerge between EU leaders divided over how to handle the migrant crisis at Europe’s borders and African states insisting on the creation of legal channels to facilitate migration into Europe.
The summit’s final document is expected to lay emphasis on doubling the number of places for African students on exchange programmes and creating more opportunities for research in Europe. An EU emergency trust fund of €1.8 billion as a response to the refugee crisis will also be set up this morning.
Dr Muscat opened the summit proceedings by laying down a seven-point plan as he urged the Europeans and Africans to work together. The migration phenomenon, he said, required a new international order on the scale of the post-war Bretton Woods accord, which laid down global financial and commercial rules.
The two-day summit has brought together the heads of more than 40 states. It was called by EU states in April of this year in the wake of the disaster at sea that saw nearly 800 migrants die when their boat capsized in the central Mediterranean.
Held under tight security, the summit got under way with a short but poignant opening ceremony in front of the Auberge de Castille in Valletta, where a new monument to commemorate the meeting was unveiled.
The leaders then transferred to the Mediterranean Conference Centre down the road where talks were held.