During a debate about Malta’s backsliding on the rule of law and delayed justice for Daphne Caruana Galizia held earlier today, the overwhelming majority of 18 MEPs who were listed among the speakers condemned Malta’s slow progress in anti-corruption reform.
The only exceptions to this overall consensus were Labour Party MEPs Alex Agius Saliba, Daniel Attard and Thomas Bajada.
Just one MEP from the Socialists & Democrats group, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, echoed their claims that Malta has done enough to address its glaring rule of law problems.
The third Labour MEP, Thomas Bajada, struck a far less defiant note, opting instead to avoid denouncing Malta’s failures by calling for wider justice for all journalists across the globe while condemning Caruana Galizia’s “macabre” murder.
In her speech at the beginning of the debate, the EU Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said she expects “(Maltese) authorities to do all that is necessary” to ensure that anyone involved in Caruana Galizia’s murder faces justice.
While she thanked the Maltese government for cooperating with the EU Commission while it compiled its report, she expressed that her office was “still concerned over lack of resources, lengthy proceedings, and the efficiency of the justice system” in Malta.
Emphasising that any attack on any journalist is a direct attack on democracy, Virkkunen also added that the EU Commission expected the Maltese government to implement the public inquiry’s recommendations.
Besides Malta’s MEPs and the Commission’s executive vice-president, most of the other MEPs present for the debate harshly criticised the government’s hostility towards civil society activists, several of whom specifically mentioned the government’s insistence on clearing away the protest memorial.
Greens MEP Daniel Freund questioned how “cruel” one would have to be to clear away flowers left in tribute by several embassies on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of the journalist’s assassination.
Javier Zarzalejos, who forms part of the European People’s Party (EPP), argued that beneath the EU Commission’s diplomatic language, it is clear that “no real progress has been made”, going as far as to call out the use of “political terrorism” by the Maltese government to intimidate judges and magistrates.
While Agius Saliba furiously heckled Zarzalejos, Attard also clashed directly with Renew Europe Group member Raquel García Hermida.
García Hermida repeatedly questioned Attard about how he could say there was no backsliding in Malta’s rule of law when Malta’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index has been on a consistent downward trend.
In his responses, Attard deflected the question by claiming that he is basing his conclusions “on facts, not perceptions,” referring to the legislative changes introduced by government over the years, many of which largely focused on reforming the judicial system and the judiciary itself rather than addressing state capture of the office of the attorney general and the police commissioner’s office.