The recent visit by the President of the European Council, although welcome, did not set any houses on fire

We were given the usual spiel that Malta can be assured that the EU will continue to show solidarity as well as with other member states directly affected by large scale migratory movements.

This hardly tallies with the stand taken by the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs who seems to expect the human tsunami to reach Balkans’ proportions before triggering into action the emergency solidarity mechanism.

While our own Home Affairs Minister waxed lyrical on the pilot project EUREMA as a result of which member states of the Union would voluntarily take over from Malta persons in need of international protection, this is very much too little, too late.

Even Nationalist MEP Simon Busuttil’s remarks contrasted sharply with those of his own party’s Home Affairs Minister when he was reported to have publicly expressed his doubt whether the pilot project in question would be enough for Malta if the problem of migrants crossing from Libya to Malta persisted.

The Prime Minister himself also seems to be out of synch with his own MEP Dr Busuttil.

Had this not been the case, what scope would there have been in the PM being hopeful that the extension of the EU pilot project to help lighten Malta’s immigration burden will mean larger numbers of immigrants will be resettled in other European countries?

I am in agreement that Malta must continue to put pressure in order to have specific solutions that are designed for Maltese circumstances, but by now one would have expected to see such wish lists translated into concrete action plans rather than mere platitudes.

There is very little consolation in the PM’s conclusion that the European Commission recognised that Malta’s circumstances were special and different to those faced by Italy and other countries, and that it therefore deserved special conditions when the EU continued to reject our call for the emergency mechanism to be triggered into action.

The PM showed nothing but mere complacency and lack of resolve when he tried to placate his domestic audience by resorting to the usual mantra of fake reassurances by claiming that the fact that the EU Commissioner had said there was no emergency for the mechanism to be activated, did not mean it could not happen.

Malta has been harping for years on end to its EU partners that the number of immigrants it was taking in was proportionately enormous compared to other countries with much larger populations and territories.

That the EU has failed to show political leadership on this issue is evident on various counts.

First and foremost because the Union conveniently chose to hide behind the lack of agreement amongst an overwhelming majority of member states.

And secondly because in the words of the European Council President himself the EU can and should do more on this ticklish and burning issue. Our response to such a weak-kneed, diluted response from the EU that seems to expect us to settle for mere tokenism should be loud and clear:

Yes you can, yes you should, yes you must.

This has nothing to do at all with populism or else the quest for vote catching.

It is more a question of showing our resolve on an issue that is a matter of serious and grievous public concern right across the whole political spectrum of public opinion, as I can personally vouch for, from the response and feedback that I got from various sources, including staunch Nationalist supporters.

It is merely a case of adding insult to injury to have the Commissioner involved trying to reassure us that the Commission is doing everything in its power to help Malta, which according to Ms Malmstrom is really facing a big problem.

On one hand she admits that we face a big problem and in the same breadth she goes on record stating that with all due respect to Malta, there aren’t the right numbers yet to trigger this mechanism.

But there is no doubt that her most ‘quotable’ quote is the following:

“We must save this tool for later when we will be really facing an exodus.”

More reactive than that, one surely cannot get.

It is ironic that while the EU Commission has proved to be relatively impotent on this delicate subject, according to a report in another local English daily she “expressed her dissatisfaction with a number of member states who did not want to budge from their opposition to burden sharing,” going on to add that she thinks MEPs should put more pressure on member states and not bark at the Commission.

And so the merry-go-round goes on and on, with Malta playing the little orphan as part of the here we go round the mulberry bush game.

The fact that President Van Rompuy told us that he will co-operate closely with our PM in the preparation of their discussions at the next European Council in June strongly suggests that the waiting game is expected to drag further on, while fuelling our frustration and deep concern even more.

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Leo Brincat is the Shadow Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development & Climate Change