Nationalist MEP David Casa has brought MEPs Ana Gomez and Sven Giegold to Malta once again. This time, their visit was not endorsed by the European Parliament as an official delegation to investigate the rule of law in Malta but it was done on their own initiative as part of their focused campaign on our country.

Their focus on Malta is quite curious when one considers that in the last country specific recommendations by the European Commission this same European institution noted Malta’s efforts with regard to the rule of law and the fight against money laundering and the funding of terrorism.

Other countries such as Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were pinpointed for serious shortcomings with regard to their justice system on thwarting corruption. However, there was no Giegold, Casa and Gomez delegation to these countries. I am sure citizens, both Maltese and European, can see for themselves that this anti-Malta campaign is being led by Casa, who is eagerly campaigning for the votes of those who love their party (PN) more than their country.

On the other hand, I must admit that I find it very sad that members of a European institution, whose role is to represent European citizens, are comfortable with a report based on unfounded allegations.

I would need more than one article to pinpoint all of the fabrications in Casa’s malicious report. Therefore, I will limit myself to the most blatant of them.

One of the conclusions is related to the ongoing libel proceedings regarding accusations made by Daphne Caruana Galizia. I will not go into the merit that it is both in the national interest and in the interest of justice that these proceedings give a verdict on whether the accusations were true or not. However, there is more than that.

In the course of the first court sittings after Caruana Galizia was killed, members of her family, mainly her sons, insisted that they wanted these procedures to go on. They also embarked on an online bullying and bluff campaign addressing members of government and asking them why they were going to drop these proceedings and accusing them they were afraid of the truth.

When these proceedings were not dropped and Caruana Galizia’s family was not in a position to provide any proof, even though they were in possession of her laptop, they played the victim card. With this in mind, Casa’s conclusion in his malicious report in this regard is nothing but unjust.

It also baffles me how these three MEPs made their own Jason Azzopardi’s claim that the accused in Caruana Galizia’s case were tipped off.

The three MEPs seemed too eager to attack Malta’s financial services and our government’s effort to attract new sectors such as cryptocurrency

There was a clear denial by the Malta Security Services and Azzopardi was not ready to repeat what he said without parliamentary privilege. Not to mention the fact that the supposedly tipped-off persons were arrested and brought to justice.  Maltese security services managed to achieve this within a few weeks from the murder of the journalist.

In other European countries where a journalist was also killed, investigations were not as successful but Casa, Giegold and Gomez did not utter a single word about this case.

Once again, these MEPs decided to meet Manuel Delia, locally known for the Arriva fiasco. He is also considered as one of the most arrogant and incompetent (judging by his results) political appointees in Malta’s history and he was actively involved in Austin Gatt’s ministry at the same time as the biggest scandal in Maltese political history was taking place.

This was the oil scandal at a time when Gatt and Delia’s government decided to change the rules to have a heavy fuel oil power station instead of an advanced one that works with cleaner energy.

Delia said that Labour controls 52 per cent of Maltese media. This is another false statement as it is clear that independent media such as this newspaper make up the majority of media houses in our country and their work was recently strengthened and protected further with new libel laws that, among other things, removed criminal libel once and for all. The conclusions also attack the Malta Financial Services Authority and the Central Bank for adopting approved procedures that are normally followed in cases such as that of Pilatus Bank. The case of Nemena, where Lawrence Gonzi served as director, is just one example.

However, the three MEPs seemed too eager to attack Malta’s financial services and our government’s effort to attract new sectors such as cryptocurrency.

I can write much more on this report but the Maltese government also issued a reply last January that addresses most of the points raised in it. One can easily access it online.

It is a pity that Gomez and Giegold are not interested in the truth and are just playing Casa’s game.

Casa desperately needs them as he is not the party’s favourite for next May’s elections and they are serving him rather than justice or the truth.

The good news is that, despite their effort to diminish our country, Malta will keep moving forward.

Ours is the country with the most civil liberties in the world, ours is a surplus island, we have the greatest economic increase in Europe and one of the lowest unemployment rates, our country invests in free childcare, we increased pensions and we have also increased investment in our education system and our students.

We truly embrace democracy, evidenced by the fact that we are only the second European country to extend voting rights to 16-year-olds.

Our Malta is a Malta of success and full of opportunities. That is why the Maltese people continue to trust this government and its leadership.

Aleander Balzan is the Labour Party’s director of communications.

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