Procedural problems are holding up the transfer of six migrants from other EU countries to Malta in terms of  an EU agreement, the prime minister said.

Commenting while attending an EU summit in Brussels which is discussing the implementation of agreements reached so far on migration, Dr Muscat said bureaucratic hurdles were hindering implementation, including the transfer of six migrants to Malta.

This sense of frustration also existed in other countries which wanted to give their helping hand, he said. 

Dr Muscat said Malta was prepared to discuss the agency which the European Commission is proposing to safeguard EU borders. However, he stressed, frontiers were an issue of sovereignty and interventions by the agency on sovereign territory should only take place when that country requests it. 

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