St. Julians (Malta), 01/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The EU/Malta joint parliamentary committee, during its meeting on 28 and 29 May in Malta under the co-presidency of Louis Glea (Malta nationalist party) and Luigi Cocilovo (EPP, Italian), listened to the Maltese Minister for Foreign Affairs Joe Borg, who asserted that his government is encouraging the internal debate over the issue of the country's accession to the EU, in view of the referendum planned following the negotiations with the EU. On behalf of the Swedish President of the EU Council, Ambassador Goran Berg, underlined the progress achieved by Malta in the negotiations, which began just a year ago: this shows, according to him, that the theory of the "catch-up" (by the countries that have begun the negotiations later than the first group) may become a reality. Under the Swedish Presidency, 37 chapters of the negotiation with Malta have been provisionally closed and 33 have been opened. As for Ursual Stenzel (ÖVP member, Austrian), EP rapporteur on Malta, she informed her colleagues over the debates underway in the European Parliament and the simplification of the Treaty of Nice for the role of Malta within the EU institutions, indicated a Communiqué.