The Commissioner also rejected demands by various MEPs to condemn Malta's behaviour.

According to The Times of Malta, Mr Frattini told one Spanish MEP, Willy Meyer Pleite, that it was untrue that Malta refused to accept 26 illegal immigrants rescued from a half-shipwrecked vessel by the Spanish tug Montfalco last May, as claimed by the MEP in his parliamentary question. In Mr Meyer Pleite’s question it was also suggested that Malta’s behaviour was causing the EU embarrassment.

Commissioner Frattini also denied similar charges that the Maltese authorities refused to accept 27 sub-Saharan Africans who had survived for three days clinging to a tuna fishing pen. He pointed out that the incident took place within the Search and Rescue (SAR) region of Libya and not within that Maltese, reiterating Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Home Affairs Tonio Borg explanation regarding the incident days after it happened last May.

In another reply to Italian MEP Cristiana Muscardini, Mr Frattini also denied the allegation she made that Malta had refused a French warship permission to disembark the bodies of 21 illegal immigrants recovered off the Maltese coast.

The newspaper reported Mr Frattini to have said "the Maltese authorities fully cooperated with the French authorities making it clear that Malta was ready to accept the corpses even if the third country in question (Libya) would not cooperate in that respect. This was the basis of a communication between Malta's Minister of Foreign Affairs and the French Ambassador in Valletta," Mr Frattini also stated that the corpses were not recovered "off the Maltese coast" but from within the Libyan SAR region.

Mr Frattini also told MEPs that the current situation on the EU's southern maritime borders is being discussed by the European Council on the basis of certain burden-sharing proposals made by Malta in response to those recent incidents.

See also:
Spain takes in Montfalco illegal immigrants - May 29, 2007 - 6:50:31 PM
Illegal immigrants Libya's responsibility - May 28, 2007 - 8:22:28 PM
Adrift illegal immigrants hang on to tuna cages -  May 26, 2007 - 7:05:23 PM

Read more about this issue on MaltaMedia's special feature: Lanċa Ġejja u Oħra Sejra: Malta and its migrations.