PL insists that EU summit outcome positive

The Labour Party is adament that the conclusions which came about as a result of talks at the European summit are "without a doubt" a step forward for Malta and it insisted that this was only made manageable by the strong stand and clear position taken by government.

Yesterday in Brussels, the leaders of the 28 member states agreed to have a clear timeframe for the implementation of the 38-point action plan on migration, with EU leaders agreeing that the European Commission should indicate the timeframes for its implementation.

"Malta's message was a very strong one and it stirred the interest of many EU countries," the party said adding that this was proved by the fact that the issue was disucssed in the first place.

"What Malta has achieved from this summit is to help make the transition from political rhetoric to the creation of concrete and written commitments".

Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said yesterday that the Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had failed to achieve anything. He said that the points agreed to already exist in the Asylum Pact signed in 2008 while a number of proposals which Muscat has pushed for already exist.

After yesterday's talks the European Coucil should be adopting 38 proposals, presented by the Mediterranean Task Force, whilst the European Commission will be making sure that there are clear time-frames so as to implement these proposals - something which government says Malta insisted on from the very beginning.

"Although we have made a lot of progress, this government will not be regarding the issue as done and dusted" it said, adding that this is what the previous administration did, whilst Simon Busutill was as an MEP.

"It is now clearer than ever before, that the pact which the PN government signed was a failure and it had absoultely no effect," it said.

The government said  that it will be making sure that the European Commission works on the time-frames so that the proposals could be implemented.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued this morning, AD chairperson Arnold Cassola said that whilst it was positive that EU leaders accepted to tie the 38-point immigration action plan to timeframes that have to be indicated by the European Commission there seemed to be no mention of a real solution to Malta's situation "which requires a drastic reform of the Dublin II convention".

"The reform would allow migrants to move from Malta", he said, adding that the egoism of the PPE and Socialist Prime Ministers "knows no bounds".

"A good number of them just do not care about responsibility and burden sharing and the changing of the Dublin convention and thus Malta is being left in the lurch by them," Cassola said.