A day after the conclusion of the all-important EU Council I couldn't find any reference to its conclusions on the Maltese media.

There's a book which says 'What happens in Brussels stays in Brussels' and never was a statement so true. Unfortunately.

Previous reports tended to repeat verbatim what Prime Minister Robert Abela told the media in Brussels and he was not at his best; which is understandable after so many hours of serried debate.

Besides, I was always against hurried, stand-up press conferences with the media not being chosen on merit or expertise but most probably because of rotation in the newsroom.

That's what you get today and that's why information about the crucial decisions taken which affect us all goes over the top of people's heads.

Nor is the quality of information given on world-level radio stations and on quality newspapers necessarily any better.

With regards to this latest crucial summit the real news and analysis began to filter out in deep night.

A pity, especially as we will see, Malta played a crucial and decisive role in the final hours which saw Commission president Ursula von der Leyen suffer a significant defeat.

The best account I could find was that on the news portal Euronews to which I refer readers.

The part relating to Malta's role is in the final part of the report but please do read the article from the beginning. 

As I write i have not come to a conclusion that Malta was necessarily right. But Malta, this small island, certainly played a decisive role.

You can find the article in this link: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/12/19/how-the-eus-reparations-loan-for-ukraine-fell-apart-at-the-eleventh-hour

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