Ountdown to Malta’s presidency begins

the heart of Europe, and for the next six months it will be at its political heart, as well.

“The crucial decisions on the future of Europe cannot be defined by the decisions of one or two member states, or by the founding member states,” Mr Fico told reporters in Bratislava on the eve of his presidency.

“Can we be successful by selling policies that don’t work?” he wondered aloud, as the EU wrings its hands over losing a member state for the first time, and particularly the bloc’s second biggest economy.

Mr Fico’s government also took aim at the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, which has gained increasing power since the governing Lisbon Treaty was introduced in 2009 for dictating policy from Brussels.

“There is a feeling among member states that they are being sidelined,” said Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak. “Policy should be driven by the member states and the Commission should turn it into legislation.”

Mr Lajcak said that nations should wield more power because “this is where citizens live, they don’t live in the institutions.”

He partly attributed the loss of public support for the EU to the workings of Brussels, saying: “It’s probably because there are too many institutions and too few member states.”

Migration was cited as a key reason for last week’s decision by UK voters to exit the EU. But British concerns centred on migrants from other EU countries that some Britons thought were taking advantage of their country’s welfare benefits.

Other EU nations have been upset by the EU’s refugee policy. Slovakia has been particularly peeved by the Commission’s mandatory quota scheme to share the refugees from Syria or Iraq that have flooded into overburdened Greece and Italy amongst all EU nations. EU members voted to pass the measure but Slovakia was among a small minority, along with Hungary, to be over-ruled.

The EU’s presidency, which rotates between its member countries every six months and which had rested with the Netherlands up to 30 June, sets priorities for the EU agenda and works to bridge differences and broker compromises.

Slovakia’s entry on to the stage appears to break with the recent tradition of low-profile tenures. It also promises an interesting six months ahead as the EU reflects on how best to handle its divorce with the UK and what direction the bloc wants to take with the rest of its members.

Six-month countdown to Malta’s presidency begins

The onus of handling the UK’s exit from the bloc will then rest with Malta, which assumes the presidency on 1 January.

But in the wake of the UK’s Brexit referendum vote, it is still unclear what the duration of Malta’s EU presidency will be – the scheduled six months, nine months – or even a full year.

This is because Malta’s presidency was supposed to be followed by that of the UK which, obviously, will be ruled out from holding the EU presidency given its imminent parting of the ways with the bloc. With the UK out of the July-December 2017 presidency equation, there are a few options regarding the length of Malta’s EU presidency.

One option would see Malta absorbing the UK’s six-month term and serving as EU President for a full year. Another would be to move the whole rotating schedule ahead by six months, meaning that Estonia would assume the presidency on 1 July 2017 instead of the UK. And a third, option would see Malta and Estonia sharing the UK’s presidency by taking on an extra three months each.

Speaking this week in the wake of an EU summit largely dominated by Brexit talks, Prime Minis- ter Joseph Muscat confirmed that discussions related to the UK’s EU Presidency had been held.

He commented in Brussels: “We made our position clear, that it is preferable for Estonia to take over early. There are those who would ask why we wouldn’t take the Presidency for a year, and the answer is that it takes a toll on the country. This will be the first time that Malta will be President and it is a strain on our resources.”

He stressed that the Presidency is an operational and political challenge and that Malta’s resources will be stretched. On the other hand, he said it would be no joke for Estonia to take over six months early. To extend Malta’s term, he said, would cost the country millions of euros.