Metsola calls on European Commission to look into Vitals hospital privatisation deal

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola has called on the European Commission to look into the Vitals deal

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola
Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola has called on the European Commission to look into the hospitals’ privatisation deal that the government of Malta concluded with Vitals Global Healthcare.

In a letter to European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, Metsola said the questionable chain of events in awarding a 30-year concession to VGH for three state hospitals “raises doubts about the government’s steps to prevent corruption.”

The concession was recently passed on to American private healthcare giant Steward after VGH ran into debts amounting to some €50 million, despite an annual subvention from the Maltese State.

“The fact that this deal also impacts a critical sector in Malta, public health and patients’ rights, means that I would urge the European Commission to use all the tools available to look into the finer details of this deal,” Metsola said.

Roberta Metsola wrote to Timmermans as the PN Parliamentary Group went to court to try to nullify the process in Malta.

She said that in light of ongoing discussions on the rule of law on Malta, the European Commission must look into whether any EU public procurement related directives have been breached.

She has also called on the European Commission to establish an EU-wide mechanism to monitor the state of the rule of law, democracy and fundamental rights in EU Member States this year, something which she will push forward in in the coming months with all other political groups.

“it is no longer appropriate for EU action to only be taken on an ad-hoc basis, we have to prevent a race to the bottom and one way to do this is to establish this mechanism, with clear rules and clear sanctions to ultimately protect people’s rights. No Government has the right to run roughshod over the rule of law and I am confident that the European Commission will take appropriate action. The situation is too urgent for it not to. We will not look away.”