Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this evening hailed the Valletta Summit on Migration as a success, but said that changes were needed in Schengen rules to safeguard the free movement of people but also ensure that migrants who were moved under the burden-sharing mechanism did not simply profit from current rules to then move to whichever EU country they pleased.  This, he said had already happened in individual cases. 

His comments echoed earlier comments by European Council president Donald Tusk who said asylum seeks should not be the ones to decide which county would grant them asylum.

Both Mr Tusk and Dr Muscat also underlined the need to strengthen the EU's external borders.

Speaking at a press briefing as the curtain came down on an informal EU summit which followed the Valletta Summit on Migration, Dr Muscat said the migration summit was a milestone in that this was the first time that European and African leaders had met to specifically to discuss migration.

The important thing was that an action plan has been agreed, funds had been allocated to it, and it had timelines which could be monitored. 

Dr Muscat agreed that Malta's contribution to the EU Trust Fund on Migration, at€250,000, was the highest per capita, contrasting sharply with some bigger countries which only offered €50,000 (or nothing to far). This, he said, added credibility to Malta in its arguments on migration.  

Dr Muscat said the EU's relations with Turkey, particularly in the current migration crisis, was the focus of the informal meeting.

He stressed that future talks, including a planned summit with Turkish leaders, needed to go beyond migration and tackle the relationship which the EU and Turkey could have as well as issues such as the treatment of Kurds and press freedom.