Money may have started to mean more than people for the European Union, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat charged this morning as he spoke at length about Friday's tragedy off Lampedusa which saw the Maltese soldiers saving 150 people from sure death.

Speaking in Ghaxaq, he said that Malta and Italy were being left alone to face this enormous problem which was now taking new forms.

For it was now not just Africans who were crossing the Mediterranean sea on wooden rickety boats but also people from Syria, who were fleeing fromwar.

These were people who had a life and a job in their own country and those who arrived in Malta yesterday included 10 doctors and a neurosurgeon, Dr Muscat said.

Malta, he said, had to work for peace for the benefit of the people and for the Mediterranean to stabilise.

“There cannot be peace in Europe without peace in the Mediterranean,” he said.

“Unless something is done, we will keep gathering bodies from the sea… When there was a financial crisis in Greece and in other countries, solidarity was requested and all European countries including Malta forked out money to help.

“This is all good but this is a humanitarian crisis which cannot be solved with money but with a clear and concrete strategy, something Labour has always insisted upon,” Dr Muscat said.

He said that Malta took a strong position and would continue to do so because it would never forget its humanitarian obligations. Even the Italian PM had acknowledged that Malta saved those people.

“Our soldiers were the heroes of Europe. They traced the people with their equipment a few minutes before their boat capsized and threw them a life-raft to hang on to. Had they not been there on time, hundreds would have perished…. This is now neighbour countries work… There was no European involvement in the matter.”

Dr Muscat said that the Mediterranean sea was not simply Malta’s frontier but the frontier of Europe and Europe had to understand this.

The matter was now up for discussion at the next European summit. This was good but not enough.

Unless a concrete plan was supported during that meeting, he said adding that Malta would be coming up with proposals, he would not say he was satisfied.

“Progress has to be real…

“Our neighbours trust us and we cannot sit and do nothing, as had been the case for a long time,” he said.

Dr Muscat insisted that while Malta would never forget its humanitarian vocation, it would keep strong and not allow anyone to use it.

He referred to the situation of the Salamis tanker, which Malta had refused entry, and said it could not have done otherwise because the owner had wanted to breach international regulations.

The meeting started with a minute’s silence for the victims of Friday’s tragedy.

Dr Muscat also spoke on the gas plant deal announced this morning and on the Government's plan to sell citizenship saying this was an avant garde idea and it was when such ideas were implemented that the country progressed. He hoped the Opposition would support the Government's plan.

CIVIL UNIONS BILL TOMORROW

He also announced that the bill to allow civil unions, including between people of the same sex will be published tomorrow.

The bill will give the maximum possible rights to same sex couples, stopping short of marriage.

"One of the most revolutionary proposals of this legislature will the granting of civil unions to same-sex couples.

"This bill witnesses the social values of this movement," he said.

He added that the bill was inspired from the decision to decriminalise homosexuality, taken by the Labour government in the seventies.