On Tuesday, the European Parliament and the European Commission will debate the state of the rule of law in Malta. The plenary in Strasbourg will then vote on a resolution on Thursday. The resolution follows the visit of a European Parliament mission to Malta following revelations about the murder of the Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.
After the Commission under Jean-Claude Juncker and Frans Timmermans closed its eyes to the continuing rule of law issues in Malta, the MEPs in their resolution once again urge the new Commission to engage in dialogue with the Maltese government. The resolution expressly acknowledges the statements made by Vera Jourova, Vice-President of the Commission, that time has come to trigger a rule of law procedure. The Commission should use all means at its disposal to ensure that Malta complies with European law on money laundering, banking supervision, judicial independence and public procurement.
The resolution clearly identifies Malta’s deficiencies in the areas of the rule of law, tax evasion, money laundering and corruption and expresses its doubts about independent investigations into the Daphne murder as long as the incumbent Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is in office. The resolution calls on the Maltese authorities to investigate allegations of money laundering and corruption against the resigned members of government.
The debate on Tuesday 17 December will be broadcast live from 9.00 a.m. onwards:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/plenary/video?date=17-12-2019
The final draft resolution can be downloaded here:
https://sg.admk-dev.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/191213-Draft-Resolution-RoL-Malta-final.pdf
Last week the EU Parliament had already sent letters to the European heads of state and government calling on them to make a statement on the situation in Malta and asking Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to initiate investigations in the context of proceedings against Malta under the rule of law: