Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is among a group of leaders leading a rallying cry in favour of the European Union, isolating right-wing naysayers in Hungary, France and Italy.
He is one of several high-profile Europeans – including former prime ministers Matteo Renzi of Italy, Guy Verhofstadt of the Netherlands and Dacian Ciolos of Romania – who issued a joint plea for EU citizens to reflect on what the EU has achieved since the end of World War I.
“A century later, as our continent once against faces division and resistance to change, we refuse to be a complacent generation. We must act now, or else face the risk that the European project will perish.
“Worse still, it could be suffocated by populist leaders for whom our Union is nothing but an anomaly of history, up for destruction,” the eight Europeans wrote in an opinion piece entitled 'Wake up Europe', published in Times of Malta and prominent European newspapers.
Instead of Salvini’s threats of 'mass cleansing' or 'getting rid of Islam', or Le Pen’s 'doing away with Europe', we proudly proclaim we still believe in the Union’s founding values of peace, freedom, prosperity and solidarity
They singled out right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, French extreme right leader Marie le Pen, and Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, saying that they were blaming the EU for all that was wrong with their respective countries, but without "proposing anything constructive, not agreeing on a plan of action".
"Instead of Salvini’s threats of 'mass cleansing' or 'getting rid of Islam', or Le Pen’s 'doing away with Europe', we proudly proclaim we still believe in the Union’s founding values of peace, freedom, prosperity and solidarity. And we will fight to both protect and retain them," the leaders said.
The opinion piece was aimed at challenging EU citizens to reflect over the coming eight months, in the run up to the European Parliament elections.
“The time we have to convince each of our member states that Europe and its citizens deserve this new project is running out,” they wrote.
The piece was also signed by Christophe Castaner, delegate general of La Republique En Marche, France, Albert Rivera, president of Spain's Ciudadanos, Spain, Olivier Chastel, chairman of Belgium's Mouvement Réformateur and Alexander Pechtold, leader of Democrats 66, The Netherlands.