Alfred Sant says EP resolution on Malta is 'irrelevant and subjective conjecture'

Labour MEP Alfred Sant has slammed the European Parliament resolution that has been overwhelmingly approved asking the European Commission to enter into dialogue with Malta over its rule of law failings. 

Sant claimed that the resolution is "swamped with a host of irrelevant, contentious and subjective conjectures that should have no place in a political resolution."

The resolution was passed in European Parliament last Wednesday with 581 votes in favour, just 26 against and 83 abstentions, criticising Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's failure to step down in the wake of developments in the Daphne Caruana Galizia murder investigation.

Sant, a member of the Socialists and Democrats, was one of the 26 who voted against the resolution. He said he voted against it with the "utmost conviction" and added that the debate has confirmed his worst suspicions about how the EP considers rule of law issues.

"They are being turned into a partisan tug of war, in which the side that wins is most successful in creating political momentum around significant facts, real or fake. There is no care about how such facts are assessed and put into perspective," Sant said.

He added that there was no question that Malta faces "great problems" of governance that needed urgent solutions but Malta was also going through a phase of political transition which, he said, should have been taken into account during the debate. 

"The European Parliament has relied on a report by a committee one of whose main members is a leading opponent of the Maltese government," Sant said, alluding to Nationalist Party MEP Roberta Metsola.