Malta will host the next EU-Med9 summit, leaders of nine southern EU member states agreed this week.
The summit will bring together the leaders of Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.
Those nine EU member states together form the EU-Med9 or ‘Club Med’ group – a collection of southern or Mediterranean EU member states.
They began meeting in 2014 and the Malta-hosted event will be the 10th EU-Med9 summit.
Malta's event is expected to be held in September 2023, but an official date has yet to be finalised.
Prime Minister Robert Abela said it would be an honour to host fellow EU leaders in Malta.
Leaders of EU-Med9 countries met this week in Spain, with the EU’s proposed gas price cap dominating discussions. The AP reported that many southern EU leaders want a cap that is more flexible than the EU Commission plan to cap prices at €220 per megawatt hour.
Many countries that favour a cap say that level is just too high, and note that even at the height of energy price spikes in the summer, it would not have been activated. Countries that oppose a cap say introducing one would undermine the EU’s financial stability.
Abela told the summit that citizens and businesses “deserve long-term, robust solutions” to energy problems.
EU energy ministers are now expected to meet next week for an extraordinary council, in an attempt to reach agreement on the price cap.
The summit in Spain also served as a platform to announce the BarMar underwater hydrogen pipeline between Barcelona and Marseilles.
The pipeline is expected to be completed by 2030 and cost some €2.5 billion. It will carry two million tonnes of hydrogen per year, or 10 percent of expected European consumption, once it goes online, said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on the fringes of the EU-Med9 Summit.
Abela welcomed the plan and said it would be crucial for EU member states to speed up investment in renewable energy sources to reduce dependence on non-EU energy sources.
Abela also spoke about migration, emphasising that Libyan authorities need EU help to crack down on people smugglers exploiting vulnerable people and operating in the Mediterranean.
He also told fellow EU leaders that Malta would work “for the common good” on issues such as climate change during its two-year period as a member of the UN Security Council, which begins on January 1.