When all is said and done, we are all on our own, as alone as Daphne Caruana Galizia that fateful day she was murdered.

In the run-up to Malta’s European Union accession, people had been promised membership that would enshrine the rule of law in the country. The Labour Party, then in Opposition, had vehemently opposed full membership and people who remembered that party in government in the 1970s and 1980s looked at EU accession as an assurance Malta would never return to those days. Those hopes look very much like they have been false.

Membership has brought huge advantages to the country, countless projects have come about through EU funds and Labour, now in government and led by a man who spearheaded their anti-membership campaign, endorses the EU. In fact, they embraced Malta’s six-month presidency of the union, hyping it up until it suddenly fizzled away with a general election that came a year too early.

What led to that snap election were allegations involving the Prime Minister’s wife and her ownership of the elusive Panama-based company Egrant. The Prime Minister strongly denied the accusation, first brought up by Ms Caruana Galizia in her blog. A whistleblower insisted she could support the claims but she has since escaped the country. And all we were left with at the end of the day is a magisterial inquiry, a dead journalist/blogger and an EU that does not appear to care. But should it?

Democracy was a prerequisite for EU membership and Malta made the grade. Now, the country is suddenly awakening to the shattered state of its institutions, in place for over half a century, and realising it is not a prime concern of the EU but of the country itself. It is our problem to solve.

There were the right moves coming from the European Parliament on Malta’s state of affairs. The European Commission too has called for those responsible for the murder to be brought to justice. But is that as far as it will go? The EU has mechanisms to regulate economic policies, safeguard the environment and monitor the single market but it comes across as lacking with regard to more fundamental issues such as the rule of law.

The EU faces similar problems to Malta in countries like Poland and Hungary, two former Soviet-bloc states. Malta is supposedly different from these countries, with a relatively older democratic system, but it is failing just the same.

Procedures do exist should the Commission determine there is a serious breach by a member state, which could lead to that country losing its voting rights in the European Council. This has never happened.

More realistic is a proposal by Germany to link access to EU funds to issues of governance and rule of law. The threat of a denial of funds could work much better, especially with a government that has put money and economic statistics above all else, as has been the case in Malta in recent years.

However, the institutional crisis in Malta cannot and should not be solved by a big brother EU. It is for the country and its people to solve and, while the EU’s reaction has been disappointing, the onus to change still remains on us though, of course, we could do with some tangible help.