The European Parliament on Tuesday expressed its concern on the lack of progress in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigations and allegations of fraud and corruption.
A new mission made up of MEPs from the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee will monitor investigations into the murders of journalists Daphne Caruana Galizia in Malta and Jan Kuciak in Slovakia.
In the coming months MEPs will monitor and report on the situation of rule of law in Malta and other EU countries, with a specific focus on corruption and freedom of the press.
“The European Parliament is concerned about the lack of progress in both murder investigations, repeated claims of harassment and intimidation of journalists and persistent allegations of corruption and fraud. The aim of the new monitoring group is to give full support to all efforts to seek justice and make sure the rule of law prevails,” the committee said in a statement.
The Committee said it set up a Rule of Law monitoring group (ROLMG), chaired by Dutch liberal MEP Sophia in ‘t Veld, which will build on the two ad hoc EP visits to Malta (December 2017) and Slovakia (March 2018) following the murders of the Maltese blogger and journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, and the Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée.
MEPs will also follow up of the conclusions and recommendations adopted by plenary in its resolutions on Malta and Slovakia.
The group’s mandate, until 31 December, foresees the possibility of hearings, meetings, fact finding missions, reporting back to the European Parliament and the adoption of a final resolution.