[WATCH] ‘Europe lacks leadership’ – Joseph Muscat tells Davos

Three European prime ministers all agreed on the need for further European integration if the EU was to take a stronger leadership on the global stage, in a panel on the future of Europe hosted by the Summer Davos Forum in Dalian, China.

But this was a quality which one of the participants on a panel of the WEF's Davos Forum's New Champions annual meeting, found wanting. "Europe lacks leadership," Maltese prime minister Joseph Muscat, said.

His statement comes just a day after European Commission president José Manuel Barroso delivered his State of the Union address, in which he warned MEPs of the political threat to the eurozone's stability. Barroso was however immediately lambasted by several MEPs for being over-optimistic about the European economy, although his reply to critics was that there was "a tendency to nationalise success and Europeanise failure".

Speaking alongside Finland's Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and Bulgaria's Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, Muscat vigorously defended the Eurozone, arguing for a strong and forward looking leadership that would give Europe a bright future.

Muscat admitted to being "shocked" that in interviews he gave to Asian journalists over the last few days, "there was almost the assumption that the Eurozone would dissolve... That's not going to happen. The Eurozone is here to stay."

The European prime ministers speaking during the debate were all in agreement that Chinese foreign direct investment could play an important role in the revival of the global economy. Europe, they said, could provide fertile ground for Chinese investment.

Over 1,600 participants from 90 countries are taking part in the seventh Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian on 11-13 September. The Meeting is held in close collaboration with the Government of the People's Republic of China with the support of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).