The European Parliament yesterday adopted a resolution that sends a powerful message that the European Union should get its act together and help Malta deal effectively with the problem of immigration.

This is the first time that a European institution took a clear stand that echoes what Malta has been saying for the past years.

This does not mean that we have solved the problem. But it does mean that we are no longer alone. Now we have the European Parliament behind us.

This is why we welcome the adoption of the resolution.

We first raised this issue in the European Parliament in October 2004 just a few months after being elected. Last September we wrote to the president of the Civil Liberties Committee calling upon it to send a delegation of members to Malta. Last January we invited Forza Italia’s Stefano Zappala MEP to come to Malta for preparatory talks. He later went on to lead the delegation.

We are aware that the visiting delegation raised some eyebrows because some members were critical of the living conditions in our detention centres.

We appreciate this reaction. We too visited the centres and we too are concerned by what we saw. We agree that conditions should be improved and we also feel that Block B at Hal Safi should be closed down. We are glad to note that work on a new centre has been completed as this will certainly alleviate the situation.

None of this means that we should do away with our detention policy. We cannot afford to do so.

We have nothing to hide since irregular immigration is not a problem of our own making. And at the risk of our country being criticised we felt that the only way to put this issue on the agenda was to allow our colleagues in the European Parliament full access to our centres to see for themselves the scale of our difficulties.

That the visit paid off can be seen by the prompt action taken by the European Parliament this week, with a full debate in plenary and a resolution adopted just a few days after the visit.

Yesterday’s resolution deplored the living conditions in detention centres and called for a reduction of the duration of detention. In so doing it expressed solidarity with the plight of the immigrants.

But the European Parliament also expressed solidarity with the Maltese people, with the Maltese authorities, whose transparency was commended, and with the Maltese police and armed forces.

In essence the resolution called for two lines of action.

Firstly, it called for a revision of EU law to ensure that the burden at the initial stage of immigrants’ arrival is shared more equitably among EU countries. This means that Malta should no longer bear the brunt of coping with disproportionate numbers. At the same time it also called on other EU countries to receive asylum seekers from Malta, thereby again alleviating our problem with numbers.

Secondly, it called for the creation of an emergency fund to tackle humanitarian crises of this nature and for an emergency mechanism in all EU funds that cater for immigration flows. From next year, the EU will have four such funds.

Interestingly, the resolution also calls for the Council of Ministers to hold an extraordinary meeting in Malta specifically on this issue.

Yesterday’s resolution was a joint resolution tabled by all political groups. The basis of the resolution was the draft tabled by Zappala and ourselves on behalf of the EPP. The final compromise took on board paragraphs proposed by other groups.

This means that the resolution is the fruit of a collective effort in the European Parliament.

We must also stress that all three MLP MEPs worked within their group to achieve this result and like us intervened in plenary to make points with which we wholeheartedly agree. Like us, they intervened in other meetings held this week in Strasbourg, including that of the Civil Liberties Committee itself.

We also appreciate that the opposition spokesperson Gavin Gulia acknowledged the work of all five MEPs and not just three of them. Because there are five of us, not just three. It is a pity that Opposition Leader Alfred Sant did the opposite last Sunday when he incredibly attributed this week’s work solely to the European Socialists dismissing altogether our contribution.

We refuse to turn this into petty politics. On issues such as this we need to show that we can pull the same rope and act in unison.

We did so this week in the European Parliament and the result is there for all to see. This week’s work shows that when we speak with one voice we can indeed make a difference. We can put our concerns on the European agenda.

We welcome this result and we thank all those who contributed to achieving it.

Our next task is to ensure that this week’s clear words are urgently followed up with concrete action.

Dr Busuttil and Mr Casa are both Nationalist MEPs