Joseph Muscat remained confident an agreement over UK demands for a new relationship with the EU was possible as talks dragged on deep into the night.
The Prime Minister reiterated his positive outlook yesterday evening after the first working session of the European Council meeting in Brussels.
Leaders returned to talks on the UK-EU deal after a working dinner that discussed migration and at the time of going to print no agreement had yet been struck.
The summit continues this morning with leaders meeting for a working breakfast dubbed the “English breakfast” – when the UK-EU deal is supposed to be wrapped up.
Dr Muscat described British demands, including social benefit curbs for EU migrants, as being “sensible” and said Malta would support them as long as what was agreed would be applicable to all member states.
“There will be an agreement… We continue to see a sceptical British public in the EU and there is need for this scepticism,” Dr Muscat said, adding this was one of the most “common sense” debates he has sat through.
The issue was wider than the UK, he added, because it reflected the general disillusionment people had with the EU. “People want the EU but they want a changed EU,” he said.
According to Bloomberg, British Prime Minister David Cameron made demands for a seven-year suspension of social benefits for EU migrants, extendable for two three-year terms. The draft text – in its third and possibly last incarnation, according to Dr Muscat – spoke of a four-year emergency break.
Mr Cameron asked EU counterparts to give him a deal he can sell to the British, who will be called to vote in an in-or-out referendum that could be held as early as next June.
Eastern European countries are particularly opposed to the concession because of the impact it is likely to have on their citizens who moved to the UK.
But Dr Muscat yesterday insisted that despite the differences there was “wide convergence”. The compromise on the emergency break, he said would likely revolve around the term specified in the draft text. Dr Muscat said Malta was vociferous in advocating a solution that was not UK-specific. “The draft we have in front of us speaks of countries that find themselves in particular circumstances and does not specifically identify the UK.”
This made it possible for Malta to use the emergency break if it ever required it, he added.
Malta was also insisting that single market rules should be applicable across the EU with no distinction between eurozone countries and those outside it. Fears had been expressed that UK demands to recognise the EU as a multi-currency union could give the country veto rights on eurozone decisions.
The UK-EU relationship debate overshadowed the discussion on migration, the other topic on the summit agenda.
Dr Muscat said “some countries” were making contradictory arguments when they argued on the one hand against accepting more refugees because they could not cope, while on the other hand they criticised the UK benefit-cut proposal because it went against the principle of solidarity.
He did not identify the countries but his comment was a clear reference to eastern bloc countries like Hungary that have vociferously opposed allowing migrants enter the EU.