The present crisis relating generally speaking to governance, caused by the revelation that both Minister Konrad Mizzi and Chief of Staff Keith Schembri had set up for themselves a trust in New Zealand which owned an empty shell company in Panama does not seem likely to go away and, on the contrary shows all signs of getting worse by the day.

The issue is very important and cannot be swept under the carpet.

But beyond this crisis which has mesmerized the entire country, life must go on and the country must not go AWOL from its heavy load of international commitments.

Chief of these is Malta’s presidency of the EU which is fast approaching and begins on 1 January 2017.

Malta’s presidency will come at a time when the EU is beset by many problems and crises and Malta’s presidency will be looked upon and expected to deal with them.

It is then a fluke, and a rather unfortunate one at that, that Malta’s presidency will fall between two very problematic presidencies – that of Slovakia whose Eurosceptic government has just lost its majority and the British one right in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum. Malta will thus be the only ‘sane’ country in the trio.

The presidency of the EU is no honorific title. The various ministers must act as chairmen of the various Council meetings. To be chairmen they have to know at first hand the issues on the table and they must also act as mediators to get the various Member States to put aside their divergent approach and come to a common agreement. This entails many, many meetings, much travel and good backup both from the national team and also from the EU staff.

The various issues that are on the table are all problematic.

Take immigration, for instance, where summit after summit with Turkey has failed to stem the deluge of migrants heading towards Germany.

Take the common currency in view of Thursday’s ECB decision, the vicissitudes of the euro and the heavy unemployment in the weakest member states.

Take the issues raised by the Remain/Brexit referendum in the UK, reflected even outside the UK in the deep distrust and euroscepticism rife in so many countries with Eurosceptic parties poised to gain more votes in the forthcoming elections, starting with three state elections in Germany tomorrow, to France, Italy, Spain, etc.

There was a point, some years ago, when many actually feared the euro was about to break up. That moment passed and the euro is still here. But now the feeling is back again – that the EU is too fragile an institution that may break up at any moment.

The outcome of the US election, the enduring weakness of China and the anaemic growth of all the world markets - all will impinge on Europe, beyond the EU’s many problems and crises.

Ideally, such is the load that Malta will shoulder as EU President that it would have been advisable to remove all internal crises for the duration of the presidency. But that is not how things stand, that is not how it’s done in the EU. There have been presidencies (the Belgian one for example) when there was not even a government majority in place and yet the EU kept going.

We shall see, at the end of the presidency, how Malta will have fared. More than ever, the reflectors will be shining on us in these six months.