When the S&D last convened in Malta, the year was 2013. Malta was a different country. Since then, it has become more divided, it has lost its status as a full democracy, it has mourned – or tried its best to mourn – its most prominent journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia. And its citizens have fought bitterly for justice.

Malta has since been greylisted by the FATF and, thus, lost its reputation as a trustworthy financial centre to the detriment of our hard-working professionals. It has seen public officials embroiled in scandal and it has seen them subvert public institutions to cover up wrongdoing and attack critics instead.

What has been happening in Malta has been dangerously inconsistent with the fundamental values of the European Union. The Europe we strive for daily is a Europe in which citizens and elected officials are able to debate our future.

But it is impossible to debate on policy when we are too preoccupied with arguing for the protection of fundamental rights: rights on which Europe is predicated, rights which are incessantly being breached in Malta.

Contrary to what my counterparts in the Labour Party claim, nobody is advocating for a boycott of our nation. We are not seeking to undo what we worked so hard to achieve before 2004, when my colleagues and I campaigned for Malta’s accession to the European Union.

We are not in the business of denigrating our country.

But we have resolved to clear its name, not by burying inconveniences. Unequivocal evidence has compelled the European Parliament to resolve that Malta be subject to close scrutiny when investigating crime and corruption.

The bottom line of our work is to uphold the values of Malta as a European nation, values that have been besieged with fatal symptoms.

Caruana Galizia is not dead because the institutions of our country functioned. A month after an independent inquiry found the Maltese cabinet – including Prime Minister Robert Abela – responsible for the failings that led to Daphne’s murder, journalists, activists and politicians still operate in a toxic climate of state-sanctioned intimidation and censorship.

The S&D delegation cannot disagree that this is an unacceptable working climate for European journalists. When you deal with Malta’s Labour Party, do not miss the wood for the trees by forgetting the events since the Panama Papers for out of the woods we are not. The situation concerning fundamental freedoms in Malta is still a dire reality for activists.

The second-largest political grouping in the EU, the S&D, are well placed to either uphold or undermine the findings of the independent inquiry- David Casa

Recall how the resolution adopted by the European Parliament last April declares that “the systematic refusal of one member state to comply with the fundamental values of the European Union and the treaties to which it has freely acceded affects the EU as a whole”.

People like former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his chief-of-staff, Keith Schembri posed too great a risk to the independence and efficacy of investigations when they were still in power. This is a conclusion of the independent public inquiry into Daphne’s assassination.

As the second-largest political grouping in the European Union, the S&D are well placed to either uphold or undermine the findings of the independent inquiry; they can ignore the elephant in the room or they can assist in the fight for a better, safer Europe, not simply for Maltese citizens but for 450 million Europeans across the bloc.

When you deal with Malta’s Labour Party, do not pretend that the rule of law issues were begotten by anyone other than the officials in the Labour Party. The S&D must decide whether to continue supporting the just cause for fundamental values. Otherwise, it risks legitimising the attacks being made by a tiny, tiny minority of its members, that those who call for justice and human rights are traitors.

In April this year, the S&D overwhelmingly voted for a resolution which dubbed “the existing standards of prevention, investigation and prosecution” of crime and corruption in Malta as “clearly inadequate”.

The benchmark for rule of law exists irrespective of electoral majorities. Because European values are more robust than brute majoritarianism. To say that the Maltese government commands a majority, while it enjoys a monopoly on the media institutions that have been commandeered by the incumbent government, is not a success story. In fact, the biggest obstacles to justice were posed by the very people who swore to uphold the country’s constitution. This is a conclusion of the independent public inquiry into Daphne’s assassination.

We could not trust the majority government to deliver justice because, for years, it refused to hold an independent public inquiry into Daphne’s brutal murder; because evidence continues to emerge that it has tampered with every institution: the judiciary, the independent media, financial regulatory bodies, the police, the army, the opposition.

We could not trust the majority government to effectively fight crime because we were targeted as traitors by the wedding guests of Ali Sadr Hasheminejad, the Iranian owner of a defunct bank which was found to have breached money-laundering rules 97 per cent of the time.

This was a bank that received the express protection of Schembri and the Labour Party, a bank which only after a long and arduous campaign spanning years has, finally, been shuttered for funnelling the money of corrupt dictators and politicians.

Justice has been greatly delayed and is yet to be attained meaningfully.

The S&D signed the EP’s resolution that warned of “possible attempts by public officials to conceal evidence and obstruct investigations and judicial proceedings”.

When you deal with Malta’s Labour Party, you must not forget Caruana Galizia, for whom the Labour Party has been deemed responsible. Help us hold the prime minister to account to start implementing the recommendations of the independent public inquiry, for Europe, for Malta and for Daphne.

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