{"id":38617,"date":"2018-01-12T14:44:43","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T12:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sg.admk-dev.de\/malta-report\/"},"modified":"2018-01-12T14:44:43","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T12:44:43","slug":"malta-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sven-giegold.de\/en\/malta-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough Malta mission report of the European Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, the European Parliament published the report of its \u201crule of law\u201d mission to Malta. The report followed the implications of members of the current government in the Panama Papers, the murder of the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia and concerns over the rule of law in Malta. The common report of a cross party delegations sheds light on serious shortcomings in the rule of law and demands tough consequences from Malta and the EU.<\/p>\n

MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens\/EFA group and member of the Parliament\u2019s Malta mission commented:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission found evidence for systematic and serious deficiencies in the rule of law in Malta. The European Commission should investigate our findings seriously. For the Maltese government it is now high time to finally take robust consequences after the Panama Papers and the murder of Daphne Galizia. Members of government with doubtful offshore accounts should \u00a0be removed from office. The EU may not accept the deterioration of the rule of law in any member state. Corruption and financial crime has to be prosecuted effectively everywhere in Europe. Therefore, the European Commission and the Parliament should now intensify their work in the framework of Article 7 of the EU treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Link to the report as a whole: http:\/\/bit.ly\/malta-report<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Recommendations of the report<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

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\u201cV. Recommendations<\/b><\/p>\n

During the meetings, the MEPs expressed serious concerns about the unclear separation of powers, which has been the source for the perceived lack of independence of the judiciary and the police, the weak implementation of anti-money laundering legislation, the serious problems deriving from the \u2018investments for citizenship programme\u2019, and the mentions of Maltese politically exposed persons in the Panama Papers and their continuing presence in government. Members noted the low rate of investigations and absence of prosecution by the Maltese authorities on these cases, as well as with regards to private sector actors involved, such as Nexia BT and Pilatus Bank<\/p>\n

The delegation underlined that the rule of law in the Member States, whether it is Malta or any other EU country, is of great concern to all: \u201cThe rule of law is a matter of collective security. The brutal assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia was aimed at instilling fear in everyone, especially those involved in investigating and prosecuting cases of money laundering and corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

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AT THE EUROPEAN LEVEL:<\/p>\n