Foreign Affairs Minister George Vella today expressed his worry at the "free-for-all" situation in Libya.

"Libya is a big headache. After forty years of a dictatorship, there was a free-for-all as the necessary institutions were not in place.

"Brothers are bombing each other, and the future is unsure for the country," Dr Vella said in Parliament. 

He said the feeling on the ground from people in Libya is that 80% of the population are people of peace and only 20% are for the militia.

The last two Maltese diplomats in Libya have been pulled out for their own safety. We are obliged to provide a service, but you cannot risk the lives of your diplomats, Dr Vella said.

He said the embassy in Libya is still open and staffed by Libyans. 

"I hope that there will be no full-blown war and split of the country. What worries me the most in all this confusion is the danger of ISIS, and their black flag has even been seen flying in Tripoli.

ISIS in Libya

"This will cause not only problems in Libya but also more irregular migration. This will also endanger our business interests in Libya as well as the wider threat to security in the Mediterranean," he said.

He said the situation in the Mediterranean has been fluid since 2011, with only a small ray of hope emerging in Tunisia.

The Tunisian party Ennahda recognised that it no longer enjoyed majority support, and took the correct decision to hand over power to "technical people," he said.

Air Malta and Malta Enterprise have established an office in Algeria in order to service the visas for the twice weekly flights from there. He said the next step will be opening a consulate in that country.

"There is stability in Egypt, but not the stability that was wished for when the revolution took place." Although it might sound egoistic, the stability is a very positive factor, he said.

On local affairs, Mr Vella rebutted a number of claims made by PN MP Marthese Portelli.

Marthese Portelli

Dr Vella said a lot of the questions raised by Ms Portelli do not fall under his remit, and time does not permit for him to answer all her questions.

The amount of employees at the foreign affairs ministry has actually gone down and not up, contrary to what Ms Portelli said.

He said Ms Portelli also appears to have erroneously calculated the global figure of travel expenses for all staff in the ministry. He said his travel expenses did not total the €1 million she claimed.

Dr Vella said negotiations are under way on joint exploration with Italy. He said joint exploration was initially proposed with Tunisia in 1996, and he hopes that something will come of the talks with Italy.

He said he has a "never-ending list" of achievements of the results achieved by Maltese ambassadors and consuls.

"All of them are doing the job they were tasked to do. Some are more capable than other, and some enjoy more luck than others," he said.

On Antoinette Cutajar, he said her case is in court and he will not go into it in the House.

Dr Vella said that the regular meetings carried out with shadow minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici are held in the national interest and not as some sort of political show.

He also spoke of the efforts of diplomats within the foreign affairs ministry.

"We are speaking about a ministry that has a strong impact on a lot of spheres in our country. Decisions taken in the ministry often have to be taken quickly due to the nature of international politics.

"It is a ministry that is the focus of foreign nations, both friend and foe. This is dynamic work that involving constant monitoring."

"The ministry is also a shop window into Malta for foreign countries."

Dr Vella thanked all his staff in the ministry for their continuous hard work and dedication.

He said work is not done solely by the minister, but by the professional and hard working diplomatic corps.

"I am convinced that many of the people in the corps could earn double their current pay outside of the corps. They do what they do out of passion for their country."

"Without the total support of the entire ministry's staff you would not have to necessary material at hand to deal with all the decisions needed to be taken as a minister."