VALLETTA, Malta: A European Commission-Arab League liaison office is to be officially opened in Malta on Wednesday by the island’s prime minister, Lawrence Gonzi.
Malta, which became a member of the European Union in 2004, was chosen to host the office last year.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations and European neighbourhood policy, and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa will attend the opening ceremony. They will meet Prime Minister Gonzi, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg and members of the foreign and European affairs standing committee of the Maltese Parliament.
Experts from the European Commission and the Arab League, along with Maltese experts will work at the liaison office, which is aimed at coordinating dialogue between the EU and the Arab League. The office, costs of which are to be shared by the EU and the Arab League, is located in Floriana, just outside the capital Valletta and home to many government departments and a number of foreign missions.
Malta, situated at the heart of the Mediterranean, has long seen itself as having both a special relationship with the Arab world and being a bridge between it and Europe. Foreign Minister Borg said: “Experience has shown that being a member of the European Union has put us in a stronger position to broker dialogue between north and south; we are no longer a tiny nation trying to find our political position in this dialogue, we are indeed part of it.
“Being an EU member has enabled us to raise the question of a permanent open channel to the Arab world. Our attendance at the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) and our participation in the Gulf Cooperation Council meetings with the EU have given us an insight into Euro-Arab relations.”
Borg said the Euro-Arab dialogue initiative proves that EU membership did not dwarf Malta’s special relationship with the Arab world. On the contrary, it provided Malta a tool to further and promote what has been at the heart of its foreign policy, he said.
