Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is expected in Brussels this afternoon for the start of an EU summit that has migration on the agenda.

The summit is likely to endorse the 38-point action plan drawn up by the European Commission task force after the October summit when Malta and Italy insisted the issue be put on the agenda after migrant tragedies in the Mediterranean.

Although the 38 "operational actions" put into one programme a comprehensive strategy for addressing migration flows they stop short of calling for a mandatory burden sharing mechanism, which the government has been calling for.

Although at a diplomatic level the plan is a milestone - a senior government official told timesofmalta.com this morning that for the first time the EU now had an actual plan of action when it had nothing in October - it is unlikely to satiate public expectations fanned by Dr Muscat's grandstanding on migration.

The plan does propose a monetary initiative - member states that accept to receive relocated migrants will get €6,000 per person - to encourage the relocation of asylum seekers between member states but the matter remains a voluntary initiative.

It is unlikely the heads of government will discuss the details of the action plan, which will be on tomorrow's agenda.

However, the government is hoping to get a renegotiation of the Dublin II regulations on the agenda of next year's home affairs policy update when the EU presidency passes over to Greece and Italy. The Dublin II rules on migration state that migrants remain the responsibility of the country that first processed their application, which prevents relocation to other member states.

The main issue on the Brussels summit, held in a city bedecked with Christmas decorations and with main streets barricaded to prevent scheduled union protests against austerity from disrupting the meeting, will be the common defence and security policy.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com