The British government is in favour of having an even closer relationship with Malta after Brexit, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Tuesday.
Giving the House an overview of the Maltese government’s efforts to prepare for Brexit, Dr Muscat said there was a willingness from the United Kingdom to maintain strong ties with Malta.
This, he added, could take a form that was even more wide-ranging than previous bilateral agreements, however, nothing was cast in stone until Brexit actually went ahead.
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Dr Muscat said the UK’s decision to leave the EU had been on the agenda at last month’s European Council summit in Austria, which he had attended. However no agreement was reached.
Opposition leader Adrian Delia said he too had hoped for an agreement by now. He made a number of questions on how Brexit was expected to impact Malta, and what was being done to prepare for it.
Would British aircraft be free to land in Malta, or Maltese ships enter UK ports? What would happen to Maltese students studying in Britain? And, what about business relationships such as UK-Malta car imports?
Dr Delia said he had also hoped to hear more about Brexit in Monday’s Budget, especially with the uncertainty that this was creating among Maltese businesses and families.
Other Opposition MPs asked whether the government was commissioning studies on the impact Brexit could have on the island, including on the tourism sector.
The government, Dr Muscat said, had been quick to set up a Brexit task force on which the Opposition also had a seat. This body was coordinating much of Malta’s Brexit efforts, including looking into opportunities, and assessing threats to the island.
Illustrating the complexities of the Brexit talks at the summit, the prime minister said the issue of the nature of the frontier between the UK and Northern Ireland was a major headache.
How would road borders be monitored? Would sea travel also require a border control? And could reintroducing such frontiers spark the flame of Irish terrorism that had all but been extinguished in recent years?
Dr Muscat said the government did not want to be fatalistic about Brexit, but was already preparing for worst case scenarios.
“Even in the worst possible case, our health agreement with the UK will remain,” he said, adding that Malta was not only an EU member state, but also a member of the Commonwealth.
The Customs Department, Dr Muscat said, was among the most prepared to deal with a Brexit, and so he was confident in its ability to manage such a transition.