Malta’s government must step down
Murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia
Following the horrible murder of the Maltese journalist and blogger, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Green MEPs Eva Joly and Sven Giegold call for the resignation of the Maltese government over its failure to properly investigate allegations of money laundering.
Below is a joint statement from Sven Giegold and Eva Joly, financial and economic policy spokespersons of the Greens/EFA group:
“The murderous attack on Daphne Caruana Galizia was an attack on European values. The murder must be fully and independently investigated. Honouring her work should mean an investigation into her revelations that is as thorough as her murder was brutal and shocking.
“We support the demand of the family of Daphne Caruana Galizia for the government to step down; a European government cannot leave any doubt as to the rule of law. The Maltese government has failed to take serious action against high level cases of money laundering in its country. In fact, the way in which the Maltese government has dealt with money laundering is at odds with our common understanding of democracy. There is a culture of impunity and fiddling between political and financial elites rules in Malta.
“The Maltese law enforcement authorities have failed to take any serious consequences of the findings of its own anti-money laundering authority (FIAU). Since the elections, little has been heard about the investigations into high level cases of corruption and money laundering. Key staff of the FIAU have lost their jobs or stepped down. A key whistleblower in the Maltese Panama Papers revelations felt obliged to flee the country. Some national investigators have conflicts of interest. In order to restore trust in the rule of law, we demand to appoint an international investigator whose rigor is without doubt and who will be fully involved in the investigations.
“When rule of law is at stake, Europe must act. We demand a serious investigation by the European Commission. We deplore that the Commission did not answer all our questions and we consider that the launch of infringement procedures should be more seriously considered."
"The fight of journalists and whistleblowers to make business more transparent is essential, but also terribly dangerous, even within the EU. That is why, to highlight their work and help ensure greater protection, we are proposing the idea of a "European prize for investigative journalism" in the name of Daphne Caruana Galizia and modelled on the Sakharov Prize. The EU cannot defend freedom of the press internationally when, within it, journalists are intimidated or, worse, murdered."
Notes
Our questions to the European Commission:
The disappointing answer of the European Commission:
http://www.sven-giegold.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Reply-to-MEPs-on-MT_signed.pdf
