Update 2 | Minister says Metsola must correct error in speech to European Parliament

The government has publicly contradicted a claim made by Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola to the European Parliament, after declaring that it had transposed an EU Directive on the protection of children from sexual abuse and exploitation back in 18 March.

The MEP yesterday claimed that the law, passed by the EU in December 2011, had not yet been transposed, but the government rushed in to say that the law was actually amended in March 2014 - three months after infringement procedures were launched by the European Commission.

Justice minister Owen Bonnici now is insisting that Metsola is refusing to acknowledge her error in her speech to the EP. Apart from that Metsola said in her reply to the government's statement that the EU rules should have been transposed "immediately" - in which case this would have been the Nationalist administration, back in December 2011.

"The Labour government implemented the law immediately after having first introduced laws removing prescription on political corruption, and the Whistleblowers' Act. The least Metsola can do is to correct the error she made at the next plenary in the EP."

Earlier today, Owen Bonnici said that the Opposition also voted in favour of the amendment to the law to transpose the Directive. “It’s completely unacceptable that Metsola does not know that the government has transposed this law. Once again, she tarnishes the country’s name in an international forum… contrary to the previous administration’s lethargy in the field of justice, this government is getting Malta up to date with EU laws.”

On Wednesday Metsola, 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, claimed the government had not transposed the EU Directive, saying Malta was currently facing the infringement proceedings for its failure to enact the legislation, describing it  as “a shame”.

In a reaction to Bonnici's statement today, Metsola insisted that the government had amended the law after the January 2014 infringement, which was launched when Malta failed to enact the EU law by December 2013. "The government was reactive, and mistaken for waiting for the EU to take action. The government should have introduced the Directive immediately. When it came to the child's interest, the government stayed back from enacting the law when it should have taken the initiative and acted immediately."

The Directive was passed in December 2011, when the Nationalist Party was in government.

Metsola accused the Labour government of exposing Malta to infringement procedures, which were still open. "Instead of admitting, the government has issued a hysteric statement showing it has its back to the wall."