Prime Minister Robert Abela attended the European Council meeting as well as the Euro Summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. 

Discussions at the summit centred largely around the war in Ukraine, the economy, competitiveness and the single market as well as energy. 

At the sidelines of the summit, Abela said that the summit discussed ways to keep the single market competitive in the interest of keeping all the economies of the European Union competitive.

This included measures to maximise the potential of the single market when doing business with third countries that do not form part of the single market.  

In his address, Ablea said that he stressed that the positive effects of the single market must be felt across the board, particularly in the area of medicines. 

He also spoke about the importance of incentives for small to medium enterprises. These, he said, are capable of making a strong contribution to the value chain in crucial sectors like technology and green incentives. 

"It was overall a productive discussion. The fact that the council's conclusions found unanimous support without any difficulty shows that the unity that we have always maintained as leaders of EU member states is crucial for discussion to keep moving forward," Abela said. 

He added that the council had also discussed how to move forward with a mechanism that would see the EU buying gas as a bloc to secure more stable energy prices. 

"Malta can benefit from this because the energy that we buy from the interconnector can be bought at a cheaper price," he said. 

"Even though we have our own agreements for buying gas we will overall still be able to benefit from it."