About: Malta presidency Archives

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday (6 February) agreed to improve conditions for migrants stuck in detention centres in strife-torn Libya, in the wake of last week's Valletta summit.

EU leaders rubber stamped a plan to curb migration from Libya at an informal summit in Malta today (3 February), offering Tripoli €200 million to better control its borders.

And so to Valletta, where today it’s a sunny 18 degrees, the sky is aqua blue, and the Mediterranean is blood red. Not literally, of course. But 4,600 migrants died in its tranquil waters in 2016

One in three women in Europe has experienced gender-based violence in her lifetime. 75% of female professionals or managers have experienced sexual harassment. And one in ten women has experienced harassment or stalking online. Violence against women is still very common in Europe, write Věra Jourová and Helena Dalli.

EU leaders must use the Valletta summit to take on the authoritarians in their ranks and reassert Europe’s founding values, writes Brigid Laffan.

Libya’s western-backed prime minister has complained that his country is only receiving “very small amounts” from the EU, ahead of a key summit on the central Mediterranean migration route on Friday (3 February) in Malta.

MEPs from the Greens/EFA group voiced frustration today (2 February) with being blocked in their investigation of the Panama Papers and on the ways in which money laundering and tax evasion are made possible in the European Union.

EXCLUSIVE / Donald Trump is offering Europe the opportunity to gain the leadership role that it has always craved, but EU leaders should be vigilant not to fall into the anti-Americanism trap, Malta's premier told EURACTIV.com in a wide-ranging interview on internal and global challenges, outlining a vision for the future of Europe.

The European Union clinched a preliminary deal early on Wednesday (31 January) to cap wholesale charges telecom operators pay each other when their customers use their mobile phones abroad, paving the way for the abolition of roaming fees in June.

Donald Tusk today placed his namesake President Trump in the rogues’ gallery of EU bogeymen, alongside the likes of Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan.

In an emotional letter sent to EU leaders gathering in Malta this week, European Council President Donald Tusk issued a bold call to arms today (31 January), to fight those who try to whittle away at the European project, loudly and clearly asserting that the EU is here to stay.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May will attend the first part of a meeting of European Union leaders in Malta early next month, her spokeswoman said yesterday (18 January).

Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said on Thursday (12 January) that he will push to replicate the deal struck with Turkey last year to defuse the refugee time bomb in Northern Africa.

As the EU enters a period of uncertainty with elections in France and Germany, and the UK initiating a process to leave the bloc, the prime minister of Malta, whose government holds the six-month presidency of the EU until June, promised on Wednesday (11 January) to align results with the concerns of EU citizens.

New UN chief Antonio Guterres will attend talks in Geneva today (12 January) aimed at ending decades of stalemate in a divided Cyprus, in his first foreign trip since taking office on 1 January. Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will also be there.

Malta was today (11 January) accused of being a tax haven as it took over the rotating presidency of the EU. Some companies in the EU's smallest country pay as little as 5% tax on their profits.

People say that the EU is riven with deep divisions but in fact, those splits are healing and a brave new sense of unity is emerging.

A summit of the EU heads of state and government without the UK will take place in Malta on 3 February, the Council announced on Wednesday (4 January). This is a follow-up to the Bratislava summit which started political discussions of the future of the EU after Brexit.

Malta on Sunday (1 January) became the smallest country ever to take on the presidency of the Council of the EU.

Thursday’s summit of EU leaders (15 December) will be a “minefield”, senior EU officials warned on Wednesday (14 December), citing a list of “sensitive, explosive stuff” that could blow up in their faces.

A Libyan unity government was formed today (19 January) in a UN-brokered deal, as mayors from the war-torn nation agreed to work together with EU and Mediterranean city leaders to rebuild the country into a modern state.