The president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, was thanked today for highlighting the need for Malta to have women among its MEPs.

The appreciation was expressed by women's organisations when Prof. Buzek met representatives of civil society, a few hours before the end of his two-day visit to Malta.

When somebody asked him how he proposed that Malta should redress the balance, Prof. Buzek suggested that the name of a woman should be in the top three in the list of candidates on the ballot paper - thus doing away with the alphabetical listing of candidates.

Yesterday, Prof. Buzek told The Times in an interview that Malta was the only country which did not have women among its MEPs.

In comments this morning, Prof Buzek praised the high turnout for elections in Malta, saying that showed that democracy was 'alive and well'.

He argued that half of candidates should be women, and pointed out that in Sweden, 65% of MPs are women, joking that men might soon have to start a battle for their own rights.

Prof. Buzek's engagements this morning included a meeting with Opposition leader Joseph Muscat during which they discussed Malta's sixth seat in the EP, the economic situation and the future of Europe.

The EP president also had a meeting with young people who take part in the NSTF mini assembly, a parliament-like activity where youths discuss European issues.

He told the young people that although negotiation and compromise might sound boring, they had replaced war in Europe and moved the bloc forward.

Prof Buzek urged them not to take Europe for granted and to be prepared to contribute to the debates which went on within it.

Reacting to a comment by a Maltese student about apathy by young people towards politicians, Prof. Buzek said the consequence of people not showing interest in politics might be that they would end up being governed by people who were worse than them.