About: Maltese Presidency Archives

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.

After blocking the main migrant route from the Middle East, the EU will this week seek ways to check a feared spring surge from Libya and North Africa across the Mediterranean.

Members of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee yesterday (24 January) moved to increase draft EU recycling and landfill targets that had been lowered by the European Commission in its re-tabled Circular Economy Package.

The EU could soon step up training and equipping Libya's coast guard to crack down on migrant smuggling in the North African nation's waters, according to an EU proposal seen by AFP on Saturday (21 January).

The European Union cannot ignore the images of freezing refugees and must implement its redistribution programme, according to Luxembourg's foreign minister. EURACTIV’s partner Der Tagesspiegel reports.

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.

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.

Romanian MEP Cristian Preda has denounced his country’s planned coordination of its stint holding the EU rotating presidency in 2019, insisting Romania’s reputation in Brussels will suffer greatly. EURACTIV Romania reports.

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.

Tackling illegal immigration, security in the Mediterranean and relations with Libya and Tunisia among others will be at the centre of the Maltese EU Presidency during the first half of 2017, Natasha Meli Daudey told EURACTIV.pl.

The Slovak EU presidency has pushed through an avalanche of decisions in recent days, proving that the EU can still move forward despite the various crises it faces.

Slovakia’s time at the helm of the EU rotating presidency has not been completely smooth sailing and its successor, Malta, will hope to guide the bloc’s agenda controversy-free. Recent successes in social issues point towards a presidency quite different from the last.

EURACTIV.com is happy to unveil the Europa building, expected to be opened during the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU, starting 1 January 2017. Photographs of the Brussels location for future EU summits were kindly provided by the presidency.

Malta, which will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 January 2017, has unveiled its logo and priorities, its overarching objective being to restore trust in the Union.

European Union interior ministers were at odds today (18 November) over how to handle immigration, with heated discussions between states who want more burden sharing and those who oppose any kind of obligatory relocation.

Hinting at a European Union with a variable geometry, Malta’s parliamentary secretary for the EU presidency, Ian Borg, said the EU had to be flexible to cater for the disparate needs of member states and restore belief in the European project.

Malta’s deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech told EU ambassadors on Wednesday (9 November) that the Union is being put to the test, and a new impetus is needed to avoid further setbacks.

European Union leaders will meet in Malta in February to help prepare for a summit the following month in Rome aimed at revitalising a bloc without Britain, an EU source said today (23 September).

In his invitation letter for the 16 September Bratislava summit, European Council President Donald Tusk made reference to The Leopard, the famous novel which describes the 19-century crisis of the Italian nobility, known for the famous sentence "everything needs to change, so everything can stay the same".

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.