Malta’s success should not be undermined by other countries’ mistakes, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning, with reference to the upcoming emergency EU Summit on Greece.

The 1st eurogroup heads of government summit taking place today was hastily convened after a recent failure to agree over the Greek situation.

Speaking at a MEUSAC core group meeting this morning, Dr Muscat said Greeece presented proposals on pensions and VAT but no concrete agreement will be reached and, most likely, the country will be given another extension.  Malta wants the money it loaned to Greece returned, however the EU needs the troubled member state to be stable again, otherwise no repayments will be made. Therefore there needs to be a decision on interest rates and the time period for Greece to pay. Dr Muscat said that Malta and Germany are the countries most exposed to the Greek bailout and our GDP is impacted by the situation. “If Greece exits the Eurozone, everyone will be a loser,” he said.

He insisted that Malta will not accept centralised control of the euro and will insist on taxes to be controlled at a national level.

On migration the Prime Minister said the Dublin II regulations need to be changed because countries receiving the largest number of migrants have their limits. However Malta will accept the emergency directive to offer solidarity when needed so it receives the same treatment when in need. He admitted, however, that the European Commission’s proposals on migrant relocations have their flaws and might increase migrant flows. 

Photograph: Jonathan Borg