Foreign Minister Michael Frendo urged for EU unity on the issue of Kosovo at the informal meeting of foreign ministers of the 10 Mediterranean EU member states (“Olive Group”), who gathered for the fifth Informal meeting in Paphos, Cyprus, last week.

Minister Frendo said it was recognised that the worst case scenario in the Kosovo issue would be a unilateral declaration of independence which was unsupervised. This was also the consensus opinion expressed at an open discussion held at a meeting of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of Malta’s parliament on this issue.

Earlier ministers discussed recent developments in the Middle East peace process in the post-Annapolis period and following the Paris donor conference of 17 December, 2007, in which Malta pledged $1 million towards a viable Palestinian State living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel.

On migration the ministers agreed for a coherent, coordinated, balanced and comprehensive approach. Regarding legal migration, emphasis was placed on cooperation, dialogue and development assistance to third countries of origin, in particular through pilot projects.