European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker could not resist remarking that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat was against European membership.

At the start of his address during a press conference at Castille as part of activities on the day Malta officially took over the running of the EU presidency for the next six months, Juncker said that one of the times he was in Malta he was campaigning for Malta’s entry to the EU, and “against the socialists”, to which the Prime Minister, interrupting, said “against me”.

Juncker said that, that time, (in 2003) he had won, to which the Prime Minister replied that “you (Juncker) won there and I won here”, but it was Juncker who had the last strike, saying “you’re a local winner, I’m a global winner.”

The Malta Independent journalist attending the press conference was not among the reporters allowed to ask questions.

Our question to the Prime Minister was going to be about the new government in Iceland which today said will re-activate its interest in joining the European Union.

In 2002, Joseph Muscat, then still a journalist with the Labour Party media, had written an article in an Icelandic newspaper advocating Iceland not to join the EU.

The Malta Independent was going to ask the PM what his advice to Iceland would be today.