The offer, made on the eve of the Copenhagen summit was for a seven year transition period, as opposed to the five years offered to Cyprus, although the newspaper's sources did not reveal whether the offer had been accepted.

'We expect developments today on this issue and hopefully Malta will accept the new offer,' they explained on Thursday.

Malta's initial request for a longer transition coupled with the right to review the situation if the UK and Ireland retain their zero rating at the end of the designated period was rejected by a couple of EU member states earlier this week, thus prolonging the negotiations.

According to the Times of Malta:

'Originally, Cyprus had made a similar request to the Maltese but it had then accepted the five-year arrangement. Since then, EU negotiators have maintained that Malta should accept the Cyprus model.'