Prime Minister Joseph Muscat today insisted that his government “is keen on migrant integration.”

Speaking in Rome during a press conference with the international press present, Dr Muscat said that integration can only take place if the “numbers are feasible.”

He however stopped well short of explaining what numbers would be 'feasible', saying “I don’t want to go into a Tory style quota system.”

This comes a week after the Prime Minister refused to rule out pushing back migrants to Libya.

On these ‘push backs,’ Dr Muscat said that the government had chosen its words carefully in order to attract the EU’s attention.

“We have stamped our feet, saying to Europe, look, this problem has not gone away,” Dr Muscat said.

He said that one of the challenges of being a small country in the EU is trying “not to be bullied, which means that we have to adopt a bullish stance.”

He said that the Maltese situation is worse than that in Lampedusa, as migrants landing on the latter island can eventually make it to the European mainland, which isn’t the case in Malta.

By way of comparison, Dr Muscat said that Malta has had the equivalent of 800,000 migrants arriving in Italy in the space of a year.

The Prime Minister said that he told European Council President Herman Van Rompuy that the issue will not be solved simply by “throwing money at the problem.”

He once again highlighted that the key is to rope Libya into being part of the solution. According to him, “the Libyans aren’t after money.” Dr Muscat said that the problem is a lack of security at the Southern Libyan border.

Dr Muscat slammed the EU’s “hypocrisy” in being prompt to rescue banks, but slow in rescuing people.

Turning to the financial sector, the PM said that “Malta is not in it for a quick buck.” He boasted of Malta’s “agile and strong financial regulator.”

The Prime Minister lamented the lack of “pro-business leadership in Europe.” He said that more work has to be done towards “scrapping legislation, rather than creating it.” He said that he agrees with the need for financial rigour, but this has to be done in conjunction with a growth strategy.