MEP slams government for not transposing EU rules on child sex abuse

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola says government failing to protect children

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola
Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola slammed the government’s failure to transpose an EU Directive on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, saying Malta was currently facing the infringement proceedings for its failure to enact the legislation by the given deadline.

“It is a shame that this government has failed to transpose such a cornerstone of European legislation aimed only at protecting children from abuse,” Metsola said.

Metsola was talking as one of the initiators of a joint resolution on Children’s Rights in the European Parliament 25 years after the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed in New York.

In her speech to the European Parliament, Metsola said that although the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by 194 States, including all Member States of the European Union, “we still have many challenges to face as children’s rights continue to be violated in many parts of the world, including in EU Member States.” 

Speaking during the same debate, MEP Therese Comodini Cachia stated that:  “Children are our future and our present – individuals in their own right with inherent dignity. Investing in children means investing in an infrastructure that secures their intellectual, psychological and emotional development holistically. This requires a comprehensive policy and strategy. Investment in social infrastructure must ensure an early warning system in Europe that identifies children at risk of harm and provide them with necessary services.”

While joining MEP Metsola in calling for the enactment of all legislative instruments dealing with the protection of children’s rights, Dr Comodini Cachia also called for engagement of all relevant stakeholders, including social welfare officers, police, legislators, members of the judiciary, and educators, in a vision in which children are individuals with rights even in their participation within the family. In some Member States this will require legislative and social change, and the EU must be a main driver in bringing about this change.

The main goal of the resolution is to address these issues and ask the Commission to present a Child Rights Strategy, inclusive of a concrete Action Plan for the next five years.