Malta and Britain sign declaration on action programme

by a staff reporter

Malta and the United Kingdom yesterday signed a declaration on an action programme which will be updated as joint initiatives currently under consideration are agreed.

During the meeting between Foreign Affairs Minister Joe Borg and Keith Vaz, British minister for Europe, the two discussed the acquis chapters which are to be opened under the French presidency and Dr Borg said that he highlighted the areas in which Malta needed some help.

Dr Borg said that the UK is offering Malta different types of technical assistance. He said the action plan was a live document which would be changed as more progress is made.

The programme covers EU negotiation, civil service coordination, common foreign and security policy, export control, health and safety, labour and social policy, justice and home affairs, agriculture, public sector reform and financial administration.

Meanwhile, Mr Vaz said that Britain looked forward to Malta's accession as it would make a valuable and distinct contribution to the EU.

He said he hoped Malta would make progress under the French and Swedish presidency adding that he welcomed the news that nine chapters would be opened as this showed the exceptional progress being made by the team of Brussels team led by the chairman of the core negotiating team Richard Cachia Caruana.