Gaddafi, Sarkozy, Berlusconi and Zapatero to meet in Malta next year

Malta has won the bid to host to the 5+5 Heads of Government meeting next year.

14 October 2010, 12:00am
by Karl Stagno-Navarra

1 min read

Leaders and Heads of government from nine countries will meet in Malta in April next year, as the Maltese government has won its bid to host the 5+5 Euro-North African Roundtable Conference.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy, of France and Zine Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisa, and Prime Ministers Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain will be among the main leaders to attend the high-profile meeting.

A spokesman for the foreign ministry has confirmed that Malta has been recently informed that it has won its bid to host the conference.

Tunisia, Italy and Libya were actively supporting Malta’s bid to host the conference which brings five southern EU states round the table with five North African countries.

Malta had joined the 5+5 group in 1991, and had hosted a Foreign Ministers meeting in 2005.

The 5 + 5 Dialogue is a multilateral forum embracing 10 countries of the Western Mediterranean, five of which are EU members: Malta, Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, while the other five are North African states, namely Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Morocco and Algeria.

Meanwhile, preparations are also underway to host a series of bilateral meetings between the leaders, namely between the Libyan leader and the Prime Ministers of Italy and Malta.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the Presidents of francophone Arab nations Tunisia, Morocco, Mali and Mauritania.

More from Karl Stagno-Navarra

Stephen Proudfoot •

@ Joe South L' Ass Kisser huwa int Joe South - apart from ass kissing, brown nosing and some other revolting acts you involve yourself in, its about time you should pay VAT for it as you certainly qualify. No one wanted the bunch of Brigands to meet in their country, so they are comming to Malta - what a farce. Only in Malta we have Zibel like Joe South who actually believes it is a Good thing to have Gaddafi, a reject by his own people and the whole world to be recieved as an old friend of this helpless country. This country became helpless because of Mintoff's flirty and brown nosing with Gaddafi in the first place and asshole Joe South still cant admit because he is full of resentment for the PN & new PL. If a doctor takes out the wrong kidney, you would never trust him again, if a small defensless country betrays you you will never give it another chance and that's waht Malta did when Mintoff was elected and no other country will give us a second chance untill that generation dies off. Gonzi has no choice but put up and shut up and hope one day, Malta regains its reputation - by then even Joe South's generation will have died away and perhaps a new beginning - but hey life can be too long in some instances. Looking forward to your expiry Joe SOuth

COLIN GALEA •

Lets start digging for our own oil and to hell with the rest,that is the only solution for this rock.

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Malta does not follow instructions from the EU. Far from it. Malta is a sovereign State and has its own voice. Migration for example was never on the EU's agenda, if it were not for Malta and Italy to be so vociferous in all EU fora. As I said earlier, let us not look at these events with a narrow minded approach. It is true that such meetings cost money, but yet again, it is not just about the money, but the opportunity to widen Malta's diplomacy. We are a nation, irrespective who is in government, if we agree or disagree with him. Foreign policy is a serious matter, that irrespective of who is in government is more continuous than anything else. So lets stop talking nonsense about this one and that one, and who did this and that. Regards the clean-ups in our roads, well I tend to agree that when government wants, it cleans up the place. It should never be like that.

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just want to know how much the tax payer is going to PAY???????? Is the tax payer going to give free food and logging to the DICTATOR? ohhhhhhhh what a $h!* sorry dictator

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so this is a happy news.I am glad to hear that.........SO NOW WE ARE GOING TO HAVE RESURFACING OF ROADS,NEW PAINT ON THE ROUND ABOUTS.............ITS NICE TO HEAR IT............

Chris Attard •

Fl ahhar ser jirnexxilna naraw lil Gaddafi taht il gonz....kemm ilna nipprovaw ingibuh law!!!!

Alfred Galea •

resalibera.....you can thank Mintoff and Gaddafi and his millions that you enjoy the life you're living now....thanks to them Malta got one of the best social safety nets in Europe. And while you're at it thank the Chinese and the Koreans coz if it was up to your limey friends and those of NATO we'd still be asking them to " give me a penny Joe". Now your party is licking Gaddafi's ass to help them out of the shit the EU put them in. At a price of course. Of course Muammar doesn't come here anymore, coz the asskissers go to his tent to ask him to "please please Muammar, help us out, we're sorry we called you all those names.....as a repentance we'll kiss your brown ass anytime".

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Ghaddafi is not my favourite person but at least he doesn't come here anymore to participate in political mass meetings like he used to under Mintoff. Although I can see why Mintoff and KMB liked him so much. Birds of a feather flock together.

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How times change, at one time we call arabs dirty, tal-habbaziz and lakumia terrorists then we host them as if they are the best of friends for centuries. What a bunch of hypocrites are running our country. Well at least they came around to swollow their bile.

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Hope Loooo Bondi is given the task once again to put up a fireworks display. Maybe even organise a dance display by the illegal migrants at Ta' Qali Stadium like they do at sports events world wide.

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As if we did not have enough of our own homegrown clowns in this country!

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Karl, obviously you are unaware of the extravagant costs associated with these meetings, but then again it's only the Maltese tax payers that are the sacrificial lambs. An administration with an inferiority complex can try to put relevance on this, since Malta's foreign policy must abide by the EU agenda in Brussels and with 5 seats out of 736, there isn't much muscle. The only benefit that could surface; if you want to call it that is the number of hotel rooms and tourism numbers that could be added by the National Statistic Office. Does this cause justify the means? Only the tax payer, the deficit and the national debt's bottom line can answer that. One look at the list of leaders and their domestic and foreign policies will make everyone understand why Malta was granted such an honour.

Joseph Pellicano •

spiza ohra bhal ta CHOGM min fuq il poplu Malti, min ser imur tajjeb din id darba?

Alfred Galea •

Karl, do you have any idea how much investment the CHOGM or whatever, brought to Malta? Thank You. And what is Malta's foreign policy, except to follow instructions from the EU??

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High profile meetings of this sort cost money yes, but at the end of the day, as long as costs are contained and limited to security and logistics, then there is nothing to criticise. May I point out that many participant countries try to host this meeting because it serves them as an investment for influence, and leads them to chair the event and it's agenda. For Malta, it serves a specific purpose to keep issues like migration and oil exploration in the Mediterranean in discussion, besides giving the opportunity to the government of the day the opportunity to meet with North African leaders, who after all are our neighbours. I do not look at meetings of this sort to be looked at from a cost point of view, unless the costs become extravagant. I believe it is high time that us Maltese do away with looking at matters like these with short-sightedness, and should take pride in Malta's foreign policy.

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Are they going to agree on the expulsion of all illegal immigrants in Mata and to the stopping and turning back of all illegal immigrants boats?

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KARL since you broke the story, as a jounalist perhaps you can tell the Maltese tax payers how much these shenanigans will cost. Or is it because of austerity measures in their countries they decided to off load these expenses on the money no problem government of Malta?