The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz this morning declined to take a position on the Maltese prime minister's threat to veto EU initiatives if the European Council does not agree on concrete solidarity on immigration.
Replying to a question by the Times of Malta, Mr Schulz said that Malta was right to ask for intervention by the EU and he was sure that Dr Muscat would make his point strongly during tonight's EU council meeting.
He said that he would await Dr Muscat's intervention to see whether Malta would convince the other member states.
Following a meeting in Brussels with the mayor of Lampedusa Giusi Nicolini prior to this evening's summit, Mr Schulz said that the EU needs to change its rules to make sure that migrants can enter the EU legally. He said that he would also make this point during his intervention at the summit.