“My role, as European Justice Commissioner, is to sometimes also ask difficult, honest questions, especially on the issues that affect all of us”, Vera Jourova told a press conference at the representation of the European Commission in Valletta on Thursday 14 June.
Asking difficult questions is what she has undertaken to do during her trip to Malta for a series of meetings with several ministers, but also judges and magistrates.
“We want the full truth (…). There is no place in the EU for the murder of journalists”, she said, in reference to the murder of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The Commission expects a full and independent investigation.
Later in her address, Jourova tackled the question of money laundering and gaps in the Maltese system in this area. On Friday, she will meet the finance minister, Edward Scicluna, and plans to take stock with him on progress with the transposition of the fourth anti-money laundering directive on the island.
Nor did she fail to discuss the Maltese practice of selling 'golden visas' - a situation the Commission has been following closely since 2014 and which will be the subject of a report to be published at the end of the year.
Finally, on a more positive note, the Commission announced that she had received official confirmation that Malta intends to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)