European Council President Antonio Costa visits Malta to discuss European budget

President of the European Council António Costa has visited Malta on Thursday morning as part of his Tour De Capitales 

Costa arrived at Castille on Thursday morning and was greeted by members of Malta’s Armed Forces, who played both the European Union anthem and the Maltese anthem.

Costa, along with Prime Minister Robert Abela, inspected the Guard of Honour, after which they headed inside Castille, where Costa signed the guest book. 

The tour aims to hear directly from member states about their priorities (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)

Their tete-a-tete, a private conversation between two, began shortly after, where journalists heard the opening minutes before the two leaders continued their working brunch.

Costa is undertaking the "Tour des Capitales", a series of meetings with EU leaders from 25 August to 17 September. 

The tour aims to hear directly from member states about their priorities. During his visit to Malta, Costa will focus on defence, competitiveness, EU enlargement, support for Ukraine, and the EU's next long-term budget for 2028 to 2034.

Costa is undertaking the "Tour des Capitales", a series of meetings with EU leaders from 25 August to 17 September (Photo: James Bianchi/MaltaToday)

On the same day, Costa shall also travel to Madrid to meet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and to Lisbon to meet Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro. 

Earlier on 9 September, he met Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin. In the first two weeks of the tour, Costa visited 13 countries, including Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Czechia, Luxembourg, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Slovenia.