MEP Francis Zammit Dimech has said that, “the Maltese Government is not sending the right message when it comes to the fight against money laundering as it did not respect the deadlines to transpose the latest EU money laundering directive which aimed to strengthen existing rules. This comes at the detriment of Maltese citizens.”
He made these remarks when speaking during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on the application of EU law and the rule of law.
Shortcomings were outlined in the Report in the application of measures to counter fraud and money laundering in recent years and called on the Commission to redouble its efforts to ensure that the relevant EU rules are applied rigorously.
“The attitude of the Maltese government was worrying since Malta was currently under the lens due to the Panama Papers scandal and organised crime which were both associated with money laundering,” said Zammit Dimech.
He recalled how the FIAU, the national agency responsible to prevent money laundering, was “being manipulated by the government” and that serious allegations had been made that Pilatus Bank, the bank which is in the centre of the Panama Papers scandal in Malta, was “bullying media houses to remove from their portals archived stories related to money laundering.”
He said that all this made it more crucial for the Maltese government to safeguard the interests of Maltese citizens.
Zammit Dimech reiterated that as the report pointed out, the European Union was founded on the rule of law and human rights. Thus member states had to lead by example when it comes to applying EU law as this also had an impact on the rule of law, “something which was now also being threatened in Malta as shown by the brutal murder of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia,” he said.
He concluded by appealing for conformity with EU law to become truly a political priority for member states and the European Commission.