Malta’s presidency will be rooted in reality, Muscat tells Juncker

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has pledged that Malta’s presidency of the Council of the European Union will be rooted in the realities of European families and businesses.

Muscat was speaking at Castille at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who is in Malta to formally launch the presidency.

“We want Malta’s presidency to be as close as possible to the people and for the topics to be discussed in Brussels and Valletta to have relevance to European people.”

He added that Malta’s presidency comes at a telling time for the EU due to current crises as well as crises on the horizon, but that he is very optimistic that the presidency will be successful.

On his part, Juncker leafed through Malta’s six priorities for its tenure of the presidency, and said that he hopes it will be a very successful presidency.

Also present for the meeting were deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri, parliamentary secretary for EU presidency Ian Borg, civil servant head Mario Cutajar, AFM commander Jeffrey Curmi, Malta’s permanent representative to the EU Marlene Bonnici, and her deputy Neil Kerr.

Muscat and Juncker as scheduled to give a press conference this afternoon.