At the time of writing, for the sake of accuracy, news was still pending on the so-called pledging conference organised by European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström yesterday. It was not known who had pledged what, or, rather, how much, in Malta’s respect.

But, despite today’s headlines on the conference’s outcome and whether they will tell of a lack of support or an unexpected show of support for Malta, is all quite besides the point – for a number of reasons.

In a nutshell, EU home affairs ministers were to meet yesterday to make pledges toward the second round of the Malta migrant relocation pilot project, an area where great reluctance has been shown in the past, and is still being shown, toward Malta’s appeals for European Union burden sharing.

First off, while the prospect of a mass exodus of people fleeing continued bloodshed in Libya remains a real, yet thankfully unrealised, threat, now is not really the time for such pledges to be made.

One could say ‘better late than never’ but the time for such a conference would have been three, four, five years ago when Malta was almost splitting at the seams with migrant arrivals, and when Malta was in desperate need of European solidarity.

But, granted, if member states yesterday pledged to accommodate Malta’s request, it would represent a considerable moral, and morale, victory for Malta. A rejection, meanwhile, would simply mean more of the sad status quo when it comes to so-called European solidarity.

Now we come to the pledge given by British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday. Mr Cameron did not pledge any specific numbers of migrants to be relocated from Malta to the UK – that was not the point.

Last year No. 10 had resettled a mere 10 of Malta’s migrants and the problems of unilaterally accepting Malta’s requests are obvious. As British Foreign Secretary William Hague told the Maltese media this week, “Malta is in a special position in that regard (migratory pressures) and has particular unique issues as regards immigration… but we have also had difficulties of our own with these issues, for different reasons.” He added that he had no announcement to make in terms of the numbers to have been pledged by the UK yesterday.

But it was the meeting between Prime Ministers Lawrence Gonzi and Cameron that framed the issue perfectly: Mr Cameron pledged not numbers but something far more valuable – the UK’s crucial support, at European Council level, on immigration at June’s summit.

What Mr Cameron pledged was, in fact, far greater than an agreement to relocate even 1,000 migrants residing in Malta. What he pledged was the UK’s very considerable political clout at EU level to bring the whole of the EU on board at the June summit of European leaders, where migratory pressures from the North African exodus are expected to take centre stage.

After all, this is a European issue and not a Maltese issue. It is an issue that requires a pan-European response and it is not a question of Malta doing the rounds of its fellow 26 EU member states asking for alms. That was not the point of this week’s meetings with the British government.

This is an issue in which the whole of the EU needs to find a comprehensive solution to the problem, and the securing of the UK’s invaluable support ahead of the June summit will do far, far more than any pledging of numbers could have done.