Muscat briefs House on EU reaction to Brexit, talks on EU presidency and relocation of UK businesses

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today that talks are continuing on whether Malta's six-month presidency of the EU would be extended or whether the Estonian presidency would be moved forward once Britain did not take up the reins in view of the Brexit vote. In a statement in the wake of last week's EU summit meeting, which he attended, Dr Muscat reiterated that the EU needed to reflect on what led to the Brexit vote lest other countries also opted to take that road. He noted that in Austria, petitioners had collected enough votes to force that country's parliament to debate whether that country should hold a referendum on leaving the EU. This, he said, was worrying. Dr Muscat regretted that those who wanted Brexit did not have the slightest idea how to go about it. The EU, he said, had rightly given the UK time to get its act together, but, he said, the UK should not abuse of this. The EU, he noted, had also decided that any deal reached with the UK would have to be inferior to membership, and any access to the EU single market was conditional on respect for the other basic freedoms of the EU, including freedom of movement.   On the EU presidency, Dr Muscat said it would be...

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