The European Union’s obsession for sticking to its rulebook could, in effect, be denying the citizens of a country who voted to stay in the bloc their rights as European Union citizens.

We are, of course, talking about the Scottish. While the vast majority of England and Wales voted to leave the European Union, the Scots and the Northern Irish voted overwhelmingly in favour of remaining part of the union.

And this conundrum is exactly why the European Union finds itself in the very shaky position that it is in today. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat spoke about the issue in a radio interview broadcast yesterday. Not in so many words, but he said that the EU must stop with the one-size fits all approach.

The United Kingdom (which may very well become a lonely St George and a dragon) voted to leave the EU. That much is fact. But it is also fact that both the people of Ulster and the Scots want to remain, so much so that the former are, after years of sectarian troubles, considering unification and the latter, a second independence referendum.

The EU has told Britain, in no uncertain terms, that it wants a quick divorce, lest the negative feelings that Britain exudes spreads and becomes contagion elsewhere within the bloc. But, what about the people of one entire country and one province who want to stay?

The European Union needs to reinvent the rulebook and it must do it quickly. This is unprecedented and no one really expected it to happen. But it has happened and the EU needs to react. There was a sentiment that the EU had become a bureaucratic dinosaur long before this, its sluggish and largely ineffective reaction to the migration crisis was a very good example of that. A summit is scheduled for this week to try and sort out this mess. While the EU will understandably be preoccupied with trying to stop the haemorrhage, as well as offsetting the loss of one of the biggest economies in the EU, the largest and most competent military power in the EU and one of its most potent diplomatic envoys in the arena of world politics, it must dedicate time to listen to, and try and offer solutions for a country which voted to remain. The English and the Welsh decided to leave because of those precise reasons, that they felt they were not being listened to. If the EU does the same with the Scottish and the Northern Irish (although not a country) then they would be doing a proverbial ostrich, in burying its head in the sand and ignoring the very problem which precipitated this unprecedented vote of no confidence in the European Union by a total of 16 million people. Scotland has begun filibustering in terms of saying that it may try and block the UK leaving through a veto when it comes to the matter being put to a vote in Westminster. This is unlikely to happen, and if the EU is indeed going to practice what it preaches, it should lay down a roadmap and conditions for both Scotland and Northern Ireland to remain in the bloc in some form or another. In the case of the Scots, this could be offered by fast track membership on condition that they adopt the euro as currency. With Northern Ireland, the EU could just accept an enlarged and unified Ireland as soon as the vote for it to happen takes place.

These are indeed interesting times. But if the EU is to get this right, It must safeguard the 400 million plus citizens on the Continent, but it must equally and unequivocally safeguard the rights of the millions who voted to stay in, and are in danger of now losing their rights as European Union citizens. This week’s summit will certainly drag on into the wee hours of the morning, and this time, we cannot have a situation where the EU says progress was made and we will meet again. This time, the EU needs to come out strong. Strong and decisive, to show that it can prevent the Tower of Babel from crashing down.