People must not be pawns in Brexit negotiations – Muscat

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat urged the UK and other EU member states not to use each other's citizens as pawns during the negotiations on Brexit, the process of which was kick-started by the UK this afternoon.

Muscat described Theresa May's long-awaited triggering of Article 50 as a "sad day for Europe" but that her letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk was clear and represented a good start to the negotiations that are set to last for two years.

"We believe that EU citizens currently living in the UK and British citizens living in the EU should have their rights preserved, and we will make it very clear that we do not want people to be used as pawns during the negotiations."

He refused to disclose what exact rights were on the negotiating table, but said that he wants Maltese students to continue enjoying their current access and fees to British universities and British immigrants in Malta to continue enjoying the same rights they currently enjoy.

"We'll go out of our way to ensure that no one loses anything, yet I must stress that this is a leap into the unknown. We are treading uncharted territory and we have no blueprint we can base ourselves on."

Muscat was addressing a joint press conference at Castille with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is in Malta to attend the EPP Congress.

He said that the remaining 27 EU member states will issue a joint statement in the coming hours in reaction to Theresa May's letter and that negotiating guidelines will be finalised during an EU Council meeting scheduled for 29 April. He insisted that only one negotiation will take place, under the auspices of the European Commission's chief negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier.

"I believe that the 27 will be united; there is a lot of convergence between us and our negotiating process must not only show unity but transparency, to show that Europe acts proactively to safeguard its core principles, such as that the four freedoms are indivisible. The fact that the UK isn't seeking access to single market is in itself an acknowledgement that they understand this stance."