The principle of burden-sharing found in the EU's Immigration Pact has to be a collective effort and cannot be seen solely from a bilateral perspective, according to Spanish EU Minister Diego Lopez Garrido.
Mr Lopez Garrido is upbeat about the agreement, for which Malta had lobbied strongly, and described it as one of Europe's most recent successes.
"We have approved a very positive agreement. We needed a common policy on migration. Europe needs legal migrants because this is directly linked with prosperity in the countries," he said in an interview during a visit to Malta.
"We have to fight illegal immigration, so we have to collaborate with countries such as Africa and those in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, like Libya and North Africa. It is impossible to build a legal model of migration without collaboration."
Mr Lopez Garrido said that last year Spain struck an agreement with other countries and repatriated 55,000 illegal immigrants. Spain was in favour of the burden-sharing principle but EU countries had to work together to reach an agreement.
"We understand Malta's concerns... This is why Spain backed Malta. We have to create consensus. This is our challenge and we are prepared to meet with other countries to approve a collective system to share the burden."
Asked if Spain was prepared to take refugees from Malta, Mr Lopez Garrido replied: "We share the philosophy to share the burden, but in a collective system. Spain is prepared to accept refugees from many countries, if many countries accept refugees from Spain. It is a collective decision, not a bilateral question. We have to approve the system collectively."
Looking ahead, Mr Lopez Garrido listed the priorities of the Spanish EU Presidency between January and June 2010.
The presidency will be a trio-presidency composed of Spain, Belgium and Hungary over an 18-month period. Spain has to prepare a programme for the EU Council's approval and needs the consensus of all the member states.
"That is why I came to Malta, because we value its opinion to formulate our programme," he said.
One of the priorities is to implement the Lisbon Treaty, or its alternative if no consensus is reached. The treaty was shot down by the Irish in a referendum earlier this year and while it was important to respect the will of the Irish, the EU required clarity on the issue, Mr Lopez Garrito said.
Another priority will be the European neighbourhood policy and the Mediterranean Union. The EU's enlargement to Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey is also on the agenda.
Spain is also looking at measures to avoid a similar financial crisis in the future through new rules on supervision, control and transparency.
"We have to continue working to build a social Europe. If we only talk about economic and technical matters, then citizens do not feel they are part of the decision-making process.
"We have to change the image citizens have of Europe. They have a distorted image of the EU, which is our present and our future. We cannot tackle the challenges of the 21st century without Europe," he said.