EU mission tells Malta PM to quit immediately over Caruana Galizia case

The head of an EU mission to Malta has called on the
country’s embattled prime minister to quit immediately amid anger over his
handling of the investigation into the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana
Galizia.
The Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld, who is
leading the European parliament’s emergency fact-finding mission to Malta, said
she was “not reassured” after meeting Joseph Muscat and his justice minister,
Owen Bonnici.
“I think everybody recognises, including the prime
minister himself, that he has made some serious errors of judgment and I would
say that staying on longer than necessary is another error of judgment,” she
told reporters in Valleta.
She said trust between the EU and Malta had been
seriously damaged, and that Muscat had done little to allay concerns.
The main opposition party said on Monday it would
boycott parliament until Muscat left office.
A small crowd of protesters threw eggs and insults
at both Muscat and Bonnici as they arrived at government headquarters for
Tuesday’s meeting.
“The EU must put pressure on him to go,” said
Caruana Galizia’s sister, Mandy Mallia, who took part in the demonstration.
“[Yorgen] Fenech wasn’t acting alone.”
Separately, Matthew Caruana Galizia, one of the
journalist’s three sons, described the EU’s response to the scandal as “a huge
letdown”, although he focused his criticism at the European commission, which
is responsible for upholding European law, rather than MEPs.
“There has been pressure from the European
parliament, but the response from the European Union has been hopeless, it has
just been a huge let down,” he told the Guardian.
At a valedictory press conference on his last day in
office as European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker declined to
comment on the situation in Malta, claiming he didn’t have the details. Juncker
said he was “highly concerned” about the rule of law in more than one EU
country without going into specifics.
Matthew Caruana Galizia cited this as an example of
the commission’s “abysmal” approach to Malta, adding he expected more from
Juncker’s successor, Ursula von der Leyen, who took office on Sunday. “I expect
them to come down like a tonne of bricks, especially after Juncker’s failures.
He was abysmal.”
The Maltese political crisis is an early test for
Von der Leyen, who is under pressure to show that she will not allow EU member
states to undermine the rule of law.
The commission has called on Malta to establish an
independent public prosecutor, after experts at the Council of Europe raised a
red flag about the separation of powers.
That issue was discussed in a phone call between
European commission vice president Věra
Jourová and Bonnici on Monday,
while Jourová
told an FT conference that failure to implement judicial reforms could trigger
an EU sanctions procedure, known as article 7.
During the call Jourová also said that the Caruana
Galizia murder investigation had “to be brought to a conclusion without any
political interference” a commission spokesman said on Tuesday.
Muscat has promised to stand down in mid-January to
allow the Labour party time to pick a new leader. The Caruana Galizia family
have called for an investigation into Muscat’s role after investigators alleged
there were links between his chief of staff, Keith Schembri, and the man
accused of organising the murder.
Schembri resigned last week and was then arrested
and later released from police custody without charge. He is alleged to have
links with Fenech, Malta’s richest man, who has been charged with complicity in
the murder. Konrad Mizzi, who had been accused by Caruana Galizia of
corruption, also quit his post as Malta’s tourism minister last week.
Muscat, Schembri, Fenech and Mizzi all deny
wrongdoing.