Maltese MEP David Casa has called on the European Council president to “intervene to help safeguard Malta’s democracy" as a political crisis related to the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation continues.
Mr Casa asked Council president Donald Tusk to "ensure the respect of the values listed in Article 2 of the Treaty in Malta and in particular, justice and the rule of law”.
Under EU law, the European Council can vote to suspend any rights of a member state, such as voting and representation. Member states must unanimously agree on a breach, with a qualified majority then able to pass sanctions.
In a letter sent on Monday, Mr Casa said Malta had been "gripped by crisis from the moment the late Daphne Caruana Galizia reported on the Panama Papers" and said Joseph Muscat had continued to defend his minister Konrad Mizzi and chief of staff Keith Schembri throughout.
The MEP expressed concern about the Prime Minister's apparent involvement in the murder investigation since businessman Yorgen Fenech was arrested last week, describing it as a "nauseating predicament that is rapidly further eroding trust in the institutions of the State."
“Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri are implicated in serious crimes. With each passing day it is becoming all the more clear that Daphne Caruana Galizia was murdered so as to prevent her from exposing these very same crimes. Joseph Muscat’s incessant protection of Schembri and Mizzi to this day has inevitably rendered him complicit in their actions,” he said.
Mr Casa said that while the police commissioner was refusing to comment, the Prime Minister was informing the public on the progress of a murder investigation that could implicate members of his cabinet.
He also questioned how Dr Muscat, who has the power to recommend a presidential pardon, could decide on such matters when his political fate is intrinsically tied to what Mr Fenech could expose.
“The fact that he has attached himself so forcefully to the murder investigation is seriously undermining Malta’s democratic credentials. He no longer holds the moral or political authority to represent our nation as a European country with democratic credentials.
I am therefore calling upon you, as President of the European Council, to intervene to help safeguard Malta’s democracy and to ensure the respect of the values listed in Article 2 of the Treaty in Malta and in particular, justice and the rule of law,” he said.