[WATCH] Government did engage with Council of Europe, Muscat insists

The Prime Minister has reiterated his lack of faith in Pieter Omtzigt, saying the government had engaged with the Council of Europe on the Daphne Caruana Galizia inquiry, but had major reservations when it came to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Joseph Muscat drew a distinction between the Council of Europe and PACE, emphasising that while the two were related, they were two separate institutions.

Muscat was responding to questions after Omtzigt, a PACE rapporteur, said that the public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s murder instituted by the Maltese government "does not meet the European Parliamentary Assembly’s expectations."

Omtzigt’s views were subsequently endorsed by the Council of Europe, which urged the Malta’s authorities to “address the issues raised as a matter of urgency.”

But Muscat said on Tuesday that the Council of Europe and PACE were not one and the same, and that Omtzigt wasn’t interested in “the truth” emerging.

“We have full respect and have engaged and will continue engaging with the Council of Europe. But we have major reservations about PACE, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in connection with its rapporteur Pieter Omtzigt,” Muscat said.

“Mr Omtzigt has serious credibility deficits, even because of his past, when it was found he had invented information about the plane which was shot down over Ukraine [MH17]. He had blamed the Ukrainian authorities instead of the Russian authorities, amongst other things. The way he acts, lies and speaks clearly shows he is not interested in the truth emerging but in saying what he thinks. So I am making it clear that we have major reservations about him.”

This he said, didn’t mean the government would shut its eyes and close its ears. “It means we engage with those we trust, those who believe are super partes, and who are critical of us when necessary but who are genuine interlocutors, which is what the Council of Europe is, and this is what we will continue doing,” he said.

Asked to clarify why, although the government had said that it had consulted the Council of Europe about the inquiry, the Council had subsequently been critical of its terms and reference and the composition of its board, Muscat insisted it was PACE - a different institution - which had said the inquiry fell short of its expectations.

Read also: Joseph Muscat took people for a ride over Caruana Galizia murder inquiry, Opposition leader says

“Basic research shows that the Council of Europe isn’t the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. They are two institutions which are tangential but are not one and the same. We said, from day one, that we engage with the Council of Europe. In fact, the Council’s secretary general issued a statement the day after we announced the inquiry,” he said.

“We said from the outset that we don’t have faith in Mr Omtzigt, who represents the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. So we are not saying anything [contradictory]. They are two different institutions, and the institution we want engage and want to continue to engage with is the Council of Europe,” Muscat added.