Civil Liberties Committee MEPs will visit Malta next week to assess the rule of law, corruption and the safety of journalists.

They will meet members of both governments, police and judicial authorities, journalists and NGOs.

Meetings are also scheduled with representatives of the families of murdered journalists Ján Kuciak and Daphne Caruana Galizia.

In Malta, they plan to meet the Justice and Tourism Ministers, and the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, police authorities and the heads of the Malta Financial Services Authority and the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit.

MEPs will also exchange views with journalists and representatives of the Daphne Project and discuss the situation with NGOs concerned with the rule of law and fighting corruption.

The delegation will follow up previous missions to both countries after the assassinations of Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová, and Caruana Galizia.It will also be visiting Slovakia.

Read: Third MEP delegation returning to probe rule of law

The new monitoring group on rule of law and the fight against corruption, set up within the Civil Liberties Committee to address the situation in these two member states in particular, recommended a new visit to Bratislava and Valletta to gather further insights.

The Civil Liberties Committee decided last May to establish a new working group to monitor the situation as regards the rule of law and fight against corruption within the EU, with specific reference to Malta and Slovakia. It is chaired by Sophia in ‘t Veld (ALDE, NL) and is composed of one member per political group.

With a mandate until December 31, 2018, the working group is tasked with recommending specific actions such as meetings, hearings and missions. It will also present a final report to the committee summarising its conclusions.

List of members travelling to Slovakia and Malta:

Sophia in ‘t Veld (ALDE, NL), Chair of the monitoring group on rule of law and Head of the delegation.

Roberta Metsola (EPP, MT).

Josef Weidenholzer (S&D, AT).

Monica Macovei (ECR, RO).

Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, DE).

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.