The magisterial inquiry into the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has not yet been given records of the surveillance carried out on one of the murder suspects, MEPs have said in a report.
Three men stand accused of carrying out the car bombing on October 16.
Court testimony by the police revealed that one of the suspect’s phones had been tapped by the Malta Security Services (MSS) in the weeks prior to the bombing.
Police have said in court that George Degiorgio’s phone was tapped due to his suspected involvement in another crime.
MEPs carried out an ad-hoc mission to Malta earlier this month about the rule of law in Malta.
In a report published on Tuesday, MEPs Ana Gomes, Sven Giegold and David Casa noted how the mooted promotion of inquiring magistrate Anthony Vella to judge was being interpreted as a way to “delay and stall the investigation”.
The MEPs said there was no communication between the police and magisterial inquiry.
They said the police appeared to have not thoroughly investigated witness accounts published by the Daphne Project, detailing how Economy Minister Chris Cardona had allegedly been seen drinking with one of the murder suspects prior to their arrest in December.
MEPs concluded that the murder investigation “is stalling”.
“People we spoke to suspect that the plan may be to ensure the blame rests with the three suspected bombers and to eventually let them go free, after 20 months of detentions”, the MEPs said.
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They said the police were not “ostensibly” following all relevant leads to find out who ordered the assassination.
The “excuses” provided ranged from a lack of resources to the impossibility of investigating all people exposed by Ms Caruana Galizia, and who may have had a motive to silence her.
MEPs noted that the magistrates tasked with leading the Egrant and FIAU report inquiries were saddled with hundreds of other cases.
Several cases of corruption and money-laundering exposed by Ms Caruana Galizia, the Panama Papers and the Daphne Project were not leading to any police, magisterial or parliamentary inquiries, the MEPs said.
They noted how several members of the government, including the Prime Minister, were “active members” of Facebook hate groups, who abuse, insult and threaten critics.
MEPs said the MFSA, Malta's finanical regulator, had not withdrawn Pilatus Bank’s license, despite its owner being arrested and charged with money laundering and sanction busting in the US.
Financial services stakeholders were concerned with Malta’s “unpreparedness” for a Moneyval evaluations later this year, the MEPs said.
Many feared that Malta’s move to become a cryptocurrency hub would mean “even greater capture” of institutions and the further infiltration of organised crime.
MEPs recommended an in-camera meeting with Europol officers to clarify the nature and origin of limitations mentioned by former Europol director Rob Wainwright in a letter sent to Ana Gomes in April.
In this letter, the former Europol chief had indicated that cooperation with Maltese authorities was not optimal, writing that there was “some room for improvement” and that the agency was actively seeking to address this.
The Maltese police later denied the letter referred to them.
In a comment, MEP David Casa said the European Parliament would continue to monitor the situation closely until the glaring issues in terms of rule of law were addressed and those who betrayed the trust of the Maltese people were removed from office and brought to justice.