Muscat in bilateral meeting with Italian prime minister Renzi

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat held a bilateral meeting with his Italian counterpart Matteo Renzi, with migration the main topic on the agenda.

Muscat said in a statement that discussions focused on the Italian proposal for a “migration compact” that envisions a “fair grand bargain” with countries of origin of migrants coming to Europe, particularly in Africa.

According to the plan, which Malta supports, the EU would provide development aid and offer legal resettlement programmes in exchange fro the countries controlling migration flows and screening economic migrants and refugees,

Italy also proposed that EU countries issue “migration bonds”, joint debt to finance the internal management of migration, a plan that has been flatly rejected by Germany.

Muscat and Renzi held their meeting at the end of the State of the Union conference, an annual event organised by the European University Institute for high-level reflection on the EU.