The UK and Malta do not see eye to eye on two major EU issues – the upcoming seven-year budget and sharing the burden of irregular immigrants – despite maintaining excellent collaboration at EU level.
If we are obliged to take quotas of asylum seekers from Malta, this will act as a pull factor for traffickers
In an interview with The Times at the end of his two-day working visit, UK Minister for Europe David Lidington did not mince his words.
“We want a freeze in the EU budget and the UK is not prepared to let go of its rebate,” he said.
Malta will only manage to obtain more EU funds if the overall budget is increased, and although Mr Lidington said the UK was “sympathetic”, he disagreed there was a need for more money.
As a net contributor, the UK – together with the other EU paymasters such as Germany, France and the Netherlands – is putting pressure on the European Commission to freeze its contributions towards the EU’s 2014-2020 budget.
Conscious this will mean less money for beneficiaries, including Malta, the new member states are advocating an increase.
“We think that at a time when all member states are being asked to make significant reductions in their domestic spending, it is wrong for the EU institutions to be expecting more.”
Asked how he reconciled this position with Malta’s, Mr Lidington argued that the UK’s position did not necessarily mean less funds for Malta. “It all depends how the EU budget is structured. For example, we think there should be less spending on agriculture and more money directed to poor regions,” he said.
One of the solutions may be that structural funds to poor regions in rich countries should be stopped and this money directed to countries like Malta. Money should be directed towards better priorities, he said.
On the controversial British rebate, negotiated by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in exchange for more agricultural funds for France and Germany, Mr Lidington made it clear this was not up for negotiation.
“The reasons for this rebate are still valid as long as most of the EU money is spent on the Common Agriculture Policy”, he said.
Another fundamental divergent view with Malta is on migration, particularly on burden sharing.
“We do not agree with burden sharing in principle as we think this does not work. On the contrary, we think that if we were obliged to take quotas of asylum seekers from Malta, this will act as a pull factor for traffickers to ship more people into Europe.”
He said although the UK was prepared to help Malta through the EU’s border agency (Frontex) and technical advice, he ruled out the possibility of relocating migrants from Malta to the UK.
Despite these differences,the two countries are working in tandem towards a common goal: resistance to the European Commission’s proposal to introduce a financial transaction tax.
“We will definitely keep opposing this madness,” Mr Lidington said, praising Malta for the tough stance it has taken in defence of its lucrative financial services.
“There are member states that wish to go it alone; they can do so as long as the rules of the single market are respected,” he said.