Malta is likely to face an uphill struggle on illegal immigration in the next six months under the incoming Swedish Presidency of the EU.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt yesterday sounded cool on the prospect of deepening talks on the concept of burden sharing, a topic being promoted by both Malta and Italy.
"I know that Malta is pushing for more burden sharing to solve its immigration problems and that the Commission is also pressing on this point but, as you know, there are different views among member states on this," he said.
"We will do our part and push a bit more. We do recognise that burden sharing can be a way forward. However, we also need to ensure that migrants are also welcomed in Europe. So, although burden sharing is important, there are difficulties and it is easier said than done."
Mr Reinfeldt was speaking at a press briefing at the Ranstad, seat of the Swedish Prime Minister's office in Stockholm, right after a meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi.
Mr Reinfeldt will be steering the EU between next week and the end of the year as his country takes over the six-month rotating Presidency.
The Swedish lack of enthusiasm for Malta's burden-sharing concept is known in diplomatic circles but Dr Gonzi yesterday insisted that the EU now needed to translate its promises into real action.
"Malta wants concrete help and we recognise the suggestions put forward by the European Commission and endorsed last week by EU leaders that the new Stockholm programme in the field of justice and home affairs will also include concrete measures on burden sharing among member states," he said.
"Although it is true that other member states also have migration pressures, these are significantly lower when compared to Malta. The amount of illegal immigrants reaching our shores in the first five months of the year would have translated into 1.2 million illegal immigrants coming to Sweden when considering its population and territory," he pointed out.
Dr Gonzi said Malta would be insisting that the intra-EU resettlement pilot project the EU has committed itself to would be launched as soon as possible.
Asked for his views on this programme, a first in EU terms and specifically designed for Malta, the Swedish Prime Minister avoided the subject and instead highlighted the problem his country faced some years ago when thousands of Iraqi refugees moved to Sweden.
"We already took almost half of the refugees from the Iraqi war," he said, hinting that his country does not completely see eye to eye with Brussels when it comes to the burden-sharing policy.
Pushed by The Times to say how many refugees Sweden will take from Malta under the new pilot project, the Swedish Prime Minster did not answer. "I can put the question differently," he said. "How many Iraqi refugees will you take from Sweden?"
Swedish public opinion is considered to be particularly concerned on migration issues following the Iraqi "invasion" a few years ago.
Following the Iraqi war, about 35,000 Iraqis migrated to Sweden every year, claiming asylum status.
At the time, Sweden had also raised the issue at the EU but got little support from other member states apart from Germany.
In EU circles, Sweden is considered to be among the most sceptical member states when it comes to asylum and migration policy and, lately, was among the leading group of Nordic member states trying to water down the Commission's initiatives to help Malta and other southern EU members facing major influxes of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
Accompanied by Foreign Minister Tonio Borg and Malta's Permanent Representative to the EU, Richard Cachia Caruana, Dr Gonzi will today complete a tour of the Northern EU member states by having talks with his Estonian counterpart Andris Ansip in Tallin, Estonia.