A critical deadline looms ahead for our country. In just over two weeks, our government must comply with a Council of Europe deadline to establish an independent public inquiry on the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

The resolution was overwhelmingly adopted by parliamentarians from across Europe on June 26 and gave our government three months to comply.

The government’s reaction to this ultimatum swung like a pendulum. One day it took a cavalier attitude, downplaying its seriousness.

The next day it launched a seething attack on the Dutch parliamentarian who triggered it. One day, the Prime Minister insisted in Malta that there will be no inquiry. The next, his own Foreign Minister promised the very opposite to an audience abroad.

But this time round, no amount of spin could mask the severity of this resolution. It was the most damning of a growing list of reports from European and international organisations on the situation in our country.

They all condemn our government for its handling of Daphne’s murder and for refusing to bring high-level corruption to justice.

On Daphne, the Council of Europe rebuked the Maltese authorities for failing to identify those who ordered the assassination and it listed no less than 10 serious weaknesses in the murder investigation. It evidently considers the investigation to be a joke. For these reasons, it called on Malta to establish an independent public inquiry within three months.

That deadline expires this month.

If Malta cannot or will not correct its weaknesses, European institutions must intervene

Failure to do this will expose our country to further scrutiny by the Council of Europe and continue to tarnish our battered reputation. It will put us on the blacklist of maverick states where ministers get away with corruption and where journalists are killed for exposing corruption.

The resolution also singles out our Prime Minister as the person responsible for the many failures on the rule of law.

Here are some of failures that it listed:

Firstly, the way the Prime Minister increased his own powers and directly controls sensitive areas of our economy that pose serious risk of money laundering (such as online gaming, the sale of passports, financial services and cryptocurrencies).

Secondly, it denounces the political capture of our public institutions that have been stuffed with party loyalists and turned into toothless entities unable to take action against the government’s own wrongdoing.

It highlighted in particular the Prime Minister’s unfettered power to appoint members of the judiciary and the Police Commissioner, exposing them to undue political pressure.

Thirdly, it lists major corruption scandals, such as the Panama Papers scandal that exposed Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri planning kickbacks from Yorgen Fenech, the owner of the new power station; the orchestration of the Egrant affair; the Hillman scandal; the kickbacks on passport sales; the VGH public hospitals scandal; the generous contracts awarded to Brian Tonna’s Nexia BT; and of course, the Pilatus Bank debacle that threw our reputation in the financial services sector straight out of the window.

The common denominator in all these corruption scandals is none other than the Prime Minister’s own Chief of Staff. Yet, despite this stench of filth, he was incredibly left in office and protected from prosecution by the Prime Minister.

In fact, no institution – not even the courts – want to touch him. This strengthens suspicion that the Prime Minister is complicit with him.

If you are still in any doubt on just how damning this resolution is, here is an extract that should make any self-respecting Maltese citizen furious at our Prime Minister for putting us in this situation:

“The assembly concludes that the rule of law in Malta is seriously undermined by the extreme weakness of its system of checks and balances. Noting that individuals such as Dr Mizzi, Mr Schembri and Mr Tonna seem to enjoy impunity, under the personal protection of Prime Minister Muscat, for their involvement in the above affairs, the Assembly considers that recent events in Malta illustrate the serious damage that can result from its dysfunctional system.”

And it continues:

“Despite certain recent steps, Malta still needs fundamental, holistic reform, including subjecting the office of Prime Minister to effective checks and balances, ensuring judicial independence and strengthening law enforcement and other rule of law bodies. Malta’s weaknesses are a source of vulnerability for all of Europe: Maltese citizenship is European Union citizenship, a Maltese visa is a Schengen visa, and a Maltese bank gives access to the European banking system.”

For these reasons, it calls on the government and our public institutions to get their act together and “end the prevailing climate of impunity by robustly investigating and prosecuting those suspected of being involved in or benefiting from the scandals”.

And it wraps up with a stern warning:

“If Malta cannot or will not correct its weaknesses, European institutions must intervene.”

Any decent Prime Minister condemned so strongly by such a reputable institution would hang his head in shame and resign on the spot.

Our Prime Minister will not do that.

But at the very least, he should now do the right thing and meet this deadline.

Simon Busuttil is the former Leader of the Opposition.