Maltese President and Tsipras discuss migration

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is on an official visit to Greece as part of his tour of six European capitals to discuss the issue of migration, border security and the EU economic matters.

During a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart, the media asked Muscat whether he thought it was feasible for Greece to complete the second review program with its lenders.

An optimistic Muscat responded that Greece made significant progress and many colleagues in Europe share the opinion that with the current government there is a serious effort to do things right.

The Greek Prime Minister said that is was  “perfectly feasible” for Greece to complete the second program review with its lenders on a technical level in time for the next Eurogroup meeting on March 23, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday, during a joint press conference with Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the Maximos Mansion.

“We are in the phase of negotiations. It is perfectly feasible to complete the review at a technical level by the next Eurogroup on March 23. We’re working hard so that on March 23 the review will be filly completed,” Tsipras said.

Concerning the future of the European Union, Tsipras said the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaty finds Europe facing serious dangers, such as euroscepticism, which is largely due to the fact that the EU stopped being attractive to its citizens because of the austerity policies. On the other hand, he continued, there’s a democratic deficit and citizens don’t feel they are participating in political developments. If these concerns are not taken into account, Europe will be left watching developments and the powers of euroscepticism take the lead, he added. “The anniversary must not be commemorative, but one of reflection and redefinition of the direction that will make the European project attractive to its citizens again,” he said.