Prime Minister Joseph Muscat made five proposals today when speaking at the CEPS Ideas Lab conference in Brussels “Reconstructing the Union”.

His first proposal was that Europe should become the bitcoin continent.

The rise of crypto currencies, he said, could be slowed but cannot be stopped.

Rather than resist, European regulators should innovate and create mechanisms in which to regulate crypto currencies, to harness their potential and better protect consumers, while making Europe the natural home of innovators.

His second proposal was that citizenship should be used as an innovative policy tool. Citizenship, he said, could be one of the most innovative policy tools for any European Union member state. It could make Europe unbeatable in the global race of the future.

He then proposed a European social pact saying that now was the time for Europe to show it got it, by agreeing to a European Social Pact that had to be the cornerstone to a social union aimed at promoting all types of equalities and social mobility.

Dr Muscat proposed a European Integration Brexit Fund saying there needed to be a political agreement that a substantial part of the exit fee that had to be settled, or its equivalent, be used to create a new European fund which would invest in communities which felt most detached from the European project.

His final proposal was for the opening of negotiations on Chapter 24 with Turkey saying that if the European Union was so worried about human rights and freedom of expression in Turkey, it should open discussion on the chapter dealing with justice, freedom and security.