I was in the European Parliament in Brussels this week and, to my amusement, found that many professed to believe that the ‘Maltese PM’ is now denoted as the ‘Maltese Pirate Muscat’. It seems that the captain of our government is now quite famous – or, maybe more correctly, infamous – in Brussels. In this article, I shall refer to him as our PM, leaving it to the reader to choose which version – ours or theirs – addresses him most suitably.

Our PM took part in an important European Council meeting on migration. The aim of the Council was to stop thousands of individuals from dying in the Mediterranean Sea every year. The Council proposed novel solutions such as having processing camps in North Africa to adjudicate who is a genuine refugee and can go to Europe. It ignored the fact that the concept of ‘processing camps’ has already had been rejected by the African states. And – even if the EU could find a country it could convince by giving them an offer it couldn’t refuse – how could we trust the EU to run these camps properly in a different region, given the mess they have made of migration in Europe itself?

The camps will the opposite of a bureaucratic organisation. They will be full of frustrated and angry young men. Will these young men be prevented from leaving the camps to try their luck on the sea and, if so, by what means? Does the Council have the stomach for the press these camps will get once the first deaths occur or, when the press writes about the way in which different groups of migrants treat each other in the camps?

Instead of actually finding a solution to the crisis which, we are told, could ‘break up the EU’, some Council members hijacked the meeting to promote their notions of an EU army as a counterweight to NATO. Others saw this as an opportunity to push for direct EU taxes to be levied on citizens without it getting too much unwanted publicity.

Our PM made a ‘strongly worded’ statement. He assured the other leaders that his government remains committed to EU regulations and security concerns, but also want the rights of genuine refugees protected. Thus, he made it clear to everyone that he is in favour of everything good and against everything bad. That surely required courage.

The Council must be aware of the corrupt issuing of visas. There are plenty of EU Commission reports showing ‘serious concern’ with regard to Maltese issuance. Yet, so far, both Council and Commission have chosen to remain quiet on the matter. International news outlets, on the other hand, have not been quiet. They have been covering the story of the court case in Malta where witnesses wanting to testify that millions were demanded by a person in the OPM to issue Medical visas have not been interviewed by the police. They also carried the related news of the suspicion that up to 88,000 Schengen visas had been being illegally issued by the Maltese Embassy and Consulate in Libya without the proper checks and that this was not properly investigated by the police either. Despite numerous stories in the Maltese press, and now in the international press, our PM has not commented officially on the scandal – not even to deny the veracity of the testimony.

The crux of the matter is that it is the dream of a better life that creates the demand for both the migrant smugglers’ services and the willingness to pay bribes to officials that can open the gates of Europe. From this it logically follows that if the Council succeeds in stopping the services of the migrant smugglers, then the demand for visas will go up.

It is therefore likely that the corruption issue is about to get worse.

Do those attending the Council summit realise that in line with the extent to which the boats might be stopped, the demand for visas – and the price – will inevitably increase? I’m sure one does. The Council should have dealt with both the smuggling and illicit issue of visas at the same time. What is the use of tackling one but not the other?

The approach chosen will only increase the illegal sales of visas.

Once the extent of Maltese illicit issuance of visas becomes clear to the other European countries, Malta’s international standing will fall dramatically. We risk our membership of Schengen, without which our tourism industry would deteriorate rapidly and possibly be damaged beyond repair. And we risk our strong relationship with Italy.

Up to now, nothing has been done to thwart this abuse. Our PM has defended his shipmates instead of making them walk the plank. This must change, before the European Council and the European Commission decide to take the corrective action that the regulations require.

Malta’s international standing and the reputation of the Maltese is not for sale. At any price.