For those who have not tried it yet, the newly-re-opened Coast Road is a pleasant drive – wide lanes, comfortable corners, space for bike riders, and roundabouts (maybe too many of them) well sign-posted.

It is an achievement and a welcome addition to those (still few) really good roads in Malta.

At last it’s ready and can be used.

It is also well marked. Hopefully, the road markings will not disappear in a few weeks’ or months’ time, or when the Valletta Summit and the CHOGM are over. Hopefully too, the other markings painted on the old roads will not disappear as soon as the Queen leaves Malta.

Now that the Coast Road is ready, let’s prepare for serious mayhem over the coming days.

Next week, the Maltese public will discover what the patient burghers of Brussels go through every time there is a European Council, or summit. In Malta’s case, the mayhem will be worse, far worse.

Brussels is a relatively big city and the routes leading to the Council meetings are well-delineated. Valletta, on the contrary, is a small town, a promontory, and the roads leading to the Mediterranean Conference Centre, where the meetings will be held, are few and narrow and without any real alternative.

Worse, it is the approach to Valletta that is and will be the problem because that approach is shared by the entire population.

In other countries, the security forces reserved entire lanes of traffic for the high-level participants. In Malta, unless other measures are announced later, what we will most probably get is an endless stream of cars preceded by police outriders with sirens full-on trying to get cars to move out – if they can do this, that is. Seen from this perspective, we may get VIPs caught up in the traffic jams and being late for the opening session, which will not be a nice way to promote Malta.

This mayhem will then be replicated a fortnight later for CHOGM.

Apart from some rather minor inconveniences, such as schools opening late, other events will carry on as if nothing else is happening. For instance there is, on Thursday evening, the traditional Mass in St John’s for the new graduands which, in our opinion could have been postponed seeing it will attract further thousands to Valletta among all that confusion.

So far, we have had some rather generic grumbles because the university will close for two days for CHOGM, and because two colleges will begin late on Thursday. By the time the Council is over on Friday, we may have people regretting we ever dreamt of entering the EU if it means such displacements and inconveniences.

And that’s only if the weather doesn’t play up – as it has a habit of doing any time we have an important event taking place in Malta with all the world’s media here.

As for the issues being discussed at the Valletta Summit and at the European Council, migration, the Maltese people would have their own take on that, which may not be exactly what the heads of government would be talking about. However, other peoples in Europe are saying much the same thing as the Maltese population.

Hopefully, the various levels of Maltese officials at the two events will be properly chosen and trained. We do not harbor high hopes in this regard considering the hiccups at the ECB meeting in Malta just a couple of weeks ago – with officials in their best suits, wireless communication and the lot, but then the machines broke down and all the press had to wait around in an impending storm.

Hopefully, none of this will materialize and we will be here to speak of the success of the Valletta Summit and the European Council.