New EU-wide rules to limit tax avoidance could cause short-term confusion among investors, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has warned his counterparts in other member states. 

"Investors have no clue how EU countries will respond to these new agreements," Prof. Scicluna said during an informal ministerial Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting in Brussels. 

Concerns were especially acute for countries "which in the past relied on tax rulings and are appealing the decision of the Commission before the courts, which could take years and create more uncertainty," he said. 

Prof. Scicluna urged colleagues to address tax certainty as an issue of importance in its own right. 

Last June, member states announced that they had agreed on new tax avoidance measures aimed at limiting base erosion and profit shifting, a common tax avoidance strategy used by multinationals. 

The EU has also been developing an Anti Tax Avoidance Package which seeks to prevent aggressive tax planning, boost tax transparency and create a level playing field for all EU businesses.

Prof. Scicluna also used the ECOFIN meeting in Bratislava to report that Malta is preparing an infrastructural project to submit to the European Fund for Strategic Investment for financing. 

As for deepening the EU's economic and monetary union, Prof. Scicluna urged colleagues to focus on other key issues first, arguing that the mutual trust such union required was currently lacking. 

"Citizens expect us to address first the three-headed hydra of migration, terrorism and long-term unemployment," he said.