The European Parliament has asked the Maltese authorities to guarantee “suitable protection” to a delegation of MEPs that starts a two-day visit here today.
The request was made by European Parliament President Antonio Tajani on the insistence of some of the visiting MEPs, Brussels sources said.
In a letter to Mr Tajani, the MEPs referred to threats made recently against “European politicians in Malta and members of the national Parliament,” the sources said.
“MEPs and national politicians have reported in court that the threats they are receiving for doing their duty are becoming increasingly frequent and are grave enough to cause these politicians to worry about their personal safety and that of their families,” Mr Tajani was told.
In the light of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination and the “current sensitive situation”, the MEPs urged Mr Tajani to insist on “suitable protection” to allow them to “carry out their duty free from fear”.
Meanwhile, as of the time of writing, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri, had not informed the MEPs whether he had accepted their invitation to a private meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning. Asked yesterday about the matter, Mr Schembri did not reply.
Mr Schembri, whose name emerged in the Panama Papers leaks and in reports by the government’s anti-money-laundering agency, the Financial Analysis Intelligence Unit, refused to meet the European Parliament’s Panama Committee delegation earlier this year, insisting that he was not an elected politician.
The Civil Society Network has publicly asked why the Prime Minister failed to order Mr Schembri to meet the MEPs arriving today and to “give exhaustive replies”.
This newspaper is also informed that Nexia BT, the audit firm also mentioned in the Panama Papers and the reports by the FIAU, informed the delegation that it would only reply to questions submitted in writing.
Nexia BT’s managing partner, Brian Tonna, wrote to the MEPs informing them that, due to “applicable legal obligations”, he would not be able to reply to any client-specific questions covered by professional secrecy and client confidentiality.
The delegation, headed by Ana Gomes, a member of the Socialist Group, will be examining the state of the rule of law in Malta.
Among other tasks, it will be meeting the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, the Attorney General, the Police Commissioner and representatives of the Malta Financial Services Authority.