Being frank with our friends - Alex Muscat

Malta is a team player in Europe. We cooperate with our partners. We understand the importance of Europeans working together. And we take strength from the friendships we have established.

But like any relationship, there has to be give and take. And there are issues at the forefront now that have to be dealt with.

The European Commission for Democracy through Law, more commonly known as the Venice Commission, came up with advice on ensuring that our legal and institutional structures were in line with European standards and international experience in the fields of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We listened and we are acting.

Reforms to strengthen the judicial system in Malta are being enacted. It is not a case of us doing what they said word for word, but we recognised there was room for improvement and we were happy to act.

When the shoe was on the other foot and we said Malta faced a huge problem with irregular immigration, our European partners were not so quick to act. Recently we saved hundreds of lives at sea but no one stepped forward to open a port for them.

In Libya, if the build-up of migrants continues apace we could get to the stage where hundreds of...