EU court rejects nomination of minister’s sister, Veronique Dalli

The government has suffered a second consecutive blow in its efforts to nominate a new Judge for the European Court of Justice (ECJ). An expert committee rejected the nomination of lawyer Vernique Dalli, sister of Minister Miriam Dalli.

The Shift is informed that following an interview last week, the Justice Minister was told that Dalli did not pass the test in an interview and was found not competent to occupy the post.

This is the second rejection of Justice Minister Jonathan Attard’s efforts to push a nominee close to the government for the post.

Last September, the ECJ’s Committee 255, the group of experts tasked with vetting applicants and issuing recommendations, dismissed the government’s first nomination for the post—former Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis.

Zammit Lewis was considered incompetent for the role. He is associated with disgraced former prime minister Joseph Muscat’s administration. Prime Minister Robert Abela denied him a Cabinet position.

Following his failure, the government nominated Veronique Dalli, a Labour representative on the Electoral Commission and an advisor to the same Justice Minister who used to work with Dalli when the two were reporters at the Labour Party’s One TV.

According to sources, Dalli was also rejected because her knowledge of EU law was far from the minimum required for such positions. She also has limited experience as a lawyer.

Malta will now have to decide on a third nomination after two embarrassing rejections.

According to a process held years ago by an ‘independent’ local committee chaired by former Judge Antonio Mizzi (the husband of former Labour MEP Marlene Mizzi), Zammit Lewis and Dalli were the preferred candidates for the €300,000 a year post.

Three other contenders are still on the shortlist given to the Justice Minister. These are David Ciliberti, currently part of Commissioner Glenn Micallef’s team, Rashida Sheikh, a lawyer linguist in the ECJ, and Jacques Rene Zammit, an experienced EU lawyer and press officer at the Luxembourg Court.

So far, the Justice Ministry has not announced Dalli’s rejection.