kfajdsl/voxpopuli huggingface dataset:
in particular it will not be solved by a theological debate about whether it is best to have the intergovernmental method or the community method or other such bizarre solutions. i am afraid that we have now reached such a stage that the only solution is for greece to devalue to leave the euro and to default on its debts.
that will be extremely difficult.
it will be extremely painful.
we were the first government in malta that introduced such legislation which will hold all politicians and public officers to account not only today but throughout our whole life time should any shred of evidence crop up linking any politician past present or future to acts of corruption.
in fact one of our pledges over the next five years is that of discussing the removal of any parliamentary immunity in malta introducing a transparency register at national level following our work as presidency to introduce a european transparency register and the introduction of a new code of conduct for all those holding public office.
the judicial appointments committee is made of eminent persons including the chief justice the attorney general and the president of the chamber of advocates amongst others.
our law was introduced in two thousand and fifteen and led greco to certify that malta shifted from a country contravening the institution's recommendations on fighting corruption to one of those in line with its main recommendations. in two thousand and sixteen we also change the method of appointment of members of the judiciary becoming the first government to forgo such powers.
mr president we did all this in just four years but we intend to do even more.
the executive is now bound to make appointments to the bench from a pool of lawyers that have been previously approved by a judicial appointments committee rather than having government appoint magistrates and judges directly without the need of any prior consultation.
as i said in the beginning i am not going to make a long introductory speech;
also after years of damning reports by the council of europe's group of states against corruption putting malta on the blacklist of political party financing we introduced an act regulating party financing which was not only important but necessary and in our national interest.
to brief you on the improvements that have been made in my country over the past few years one of the first bills which we presented as a government was that which removed the time barring that existed on acts of corruption by politicians and those holding public office.
i will structure my intervention two fold i will start by at the start of this debate making some points on the progress on the rule of law which has been achieved in malta over the past few years then i will be looking forward into devoting most of the time later on into answering questions that colleagues will be putting over.
as such no politician will be able to escape the long arm of justice throughout their life time.
mr president i would like to start by expressing my government's solidarity with the british people on this morning's fire and also our solidarity with our american colleagues following the shootings in virginia just some time ago.
so why doesn't the commission deal with the biggest scandals of all the waste of the european union of the taxpayers of europe?
or the new wilfried martens building built for eur one hundred and twenty five million fifteen more than ordinary buildings of the type would have been built.
thank goodness we in britain are going to leave the european union so that we don't have to deal with those costs and waste anymore.
mr president the panama papers have given rise to many scandals and corruption and it is quite right that we create laws to prevent such waste and deal with those scandals.
they are proceeding in total independence in accordance with the rule of law. the maltese prime ministers has committed to respect their conclusions. some might dislike the fact that malta is excelling in financial services yet the sector operates in full conformity with eu and oecd rules.
individual cases are being wrongly generalised by people in this parliament.
if they are given credence future statements we might make about the rule of law anywhere will risk becoming undermined and devalued.
the grounds for this debate are non existent.
critics of the maltese administration have no basis to claim that the rule of law is being undermined.
in a democratic society built on the rule of law there is only one response to such allegations where there are allegations there must be investigation and where there is investigation there must be a conclusion a judgement and a ruling.
this being the case the plenary chamber of the european parliament is not the proper forum to deal with these accusations.
can you help to bring your own governments to responsibility for the actions taken by this group?
in the specific case of malta so far only two of these are present the accusations and the formal investigation which is well underway.
but i am glad that the eu was reformed in the way that it now has a permanent president of the european council.
on the face of it it seems eu law has somehow been implemented but its enforcement strong and independent institutions including the financial intelligence unit and more generally the rule of law are questionable.
in brussels it seems malta is fighting eu efforts to move towards more transparency be it within the anti money laundering directive country by country reporting or a common consolidated corporate tax base. this cannot imply anything other than it has a lot to hide. it has nothing to do with the size of the country
and also their possible ties to politically exposed persons there are very worrying.
we have removed time barring on issues of corruption.
house. i do not have a problem in having the debate that we just
them. in doing all this then we managed to achieve success and i do believe that there might be some people who are not too keen on our economic success and social success.
we will be having for the first time hearings in our parliament for appointing regulators.
it is about the honest busy people that go to work each and every
we have increased the minimum
we have the chair of our financial services regulatory authority who was appointed by the previous administration.
law. we have an attorney general who was not changed after the election.
this is prosperity with a purpose;
and you know
there are four independent judicial investigations taking place.
it. which brings me to some other points which i would like to make which is really the third point which some of you have referred
yes quite a number of you relied on reports that were on media.
some other member states are not full democracies but i will not judge
i think ms metsola said quite clearly there are four investigations taking place in court by independent judges and they will decide whether there is room for prosecution.
on one i agree with this house and i will show how in practice we as a government and also as a presidency have gone to lengths not only not to obstruct the advancement of dossiers in this area but actually to conclude dossiers that are quite thorny
you will find at least five member states and not necessarily the usual suspects who are ranked lower than malta when it comes to secrecy and transparency.
we are now totally compliant with the system and we are implementing it. it is not a law just there for the sake of being there.
it is oecd compliant.
i believe that we all trust moneyval. it is an institution that is not political.
law. let me take some time to say what we do back at home about the rule of
we have a commissioner from the epp family who is mentioned in those papers his own family.
the fact is that it has undergone all levels of scrutiny by all organisations.
the only exercise that was made was a consolidation of elements where instead of searching a company one searches a name.
it is an institution that sees each and every jurisdiction makes recommendations and is very tough.
and i am amazed that such a basic fact has been overlooked when there is such what i deem to be a serious debate or which should have been a serious debate.
but really and truly there are three ways in which this debate has gone there is the debate on the panama papers there is the debate on the issue of taxation and there is then an outright lie that has been said.
we are not the last people to come to join this fight against avoidance and evasion. the point where we disagree is where member states should not be let and left to decide their own tax levels.
it is about experts telling us what to do in the same way that greco the council of europe told us you guys don't have a system of party financing we don't know who is financing your political parties'. guess what?
some might not like it;
those who made the allegations i asked them would you want to pledge your political career if what you are saying is false?
i think that is a fact that should be taken into consideration.
i might remain in a minority on this but that is something that i believe is fundamental and is also fundamental for a number of other member states irrespective of the composition of our economy.
i do not even bat an eyelid doing that because i know i am saying the truth. i marvel at the idea that some extremely knowledgeable members of this house have taken this thing this fake news and repeated it here just like
i must say that i will keep on mentioning a number of facts that i think need to be ascertained.
this is an outright
we have an ombudsman who is critical of all institutions and of all governments irrespective of which party forms that government;
i do understand as a politician the timing of the debate and i do appreciate that a majority in this house did not agree to the fact that such a debate takes place during an electoral campaign.
malta's imputation tax system is quite unique in europe that's true.
let me move on to some other issues.
i must also stress the fact that our government and also as a whole we are part of the oecd exchange of information.
it is not true that our economy is dependent on financial services that shows a lack of knowledge about the structure of the smallest member state's economy.
that are being quoted including the financial intelligence analysis unit.
we are not a mailbox economy;
him. some people in this house have referred to a story a totally outright lie that has been directed against me my wife and my family namely that i have some sort of structure account funds that i took from some contract
a public service commission that is made up of representatives from all sides of the
so allow me to reply in kind and to be tongue and cheek in my replies and very candid and very open in the way i try to address the concerns that you have put forward.
let me start with our tax system.
trying to put a caricature of all this i can accept it in a tabloid but really and truly i expect a more informed debate in such a house.
i consider this as a natural second home for me and i do understand the spirit of this debate.
let's start with the debate on the panama papers with many members asking why there is not an investigation.
we introduced the system. guess what?
a government that when it has reports takes corrective action.
some might say it is competitive.
there is nothing secret. the people who have companies back at home are publicly available on the internet.
it is not about who tweets and who posts on the internet.
i put myself on the line for the simple reason i know it is totally untrue.
the second part of the topic for discussion is the rule of
there already has been a commitment that if there is such room for prosecution resignations would be in order. i am amazed that this basic fact was not taken into consideration.
it has been scrutinised by the commission prior to our joining the european union more than eleven years ago.
none of you i am surprised referred to the moneyval reports.
law. may i remind you the economist classifies malta as one of the few countries which is a full democracy.
i also believe that there are two ways in which we can go on the taxation element.
moneyval has a positive report about our country.
i said i would be coming once the judge comes out with the independent investigation one of the four independent investigations to be able to present to the pana committee not what the prime minister of malta is saying but facts ascertained by the judiciary.
i do believe the problem is that most of the time members and colleagues are sourcing their facts simply from the social media and not trying to dig little bit deeper to try to ascertain the veracity of fact.
maybe it is not too much important for some of you over here but if you look at the basic numbers our main exports are microchips.
lie. whenever i ask someone to tell me the source of all this everyone points at the same blog and report which is unsubstantiated.
this is a much more serene setting for such a debate.
that is the most basic fact that i am sorry quite a number of members got wrong.
' no they did not take up the challenge.
i said the independence of institutions but also the way in which we source our information and the way in which we direct debates.
if you do not get this basic fact right i am sorry please check your press reviews or fire the people who are making them for
we kept him in office.
we kept the same attorney general who was nominated by the previous government and now this person of high integrity gets attacked because some people in the opposition do not like the way in which he is giving advice.
this is the sort of debate i would love to have in this
wage; we have introduced universal free childcare;
day. we have increased our pensions;
and we have removed criminal libels in order to prevent journalists from being put in prison laws that have been there even after we joined the european union and we managed to remove
we have enacted a freedom of information
word. i will be here to present facts and those facts hopefully will show how misguided some colleagues unfortunately have
seats; we disagreed with that ruling but we said yes we will implement that ruling because we observe the rule of
in the interest of the european union you showed that you are from time to time ready for change ready to rethink your own position. i bring to our mind again that you were not previously in favour of malta becoming a member of the european union.
i would ask you to do so.
you said a lot about what you did on paper on legislation to guarantee the rule of law in malta.
i think that is a chance for you in your second approach here in the parliament to clarify these points.
this example shows that you are ready to rethink your position from time to time.
that is what we want to ask you because we have a lot of discussion points where can really work together for the future of europe but that is the substance of the debate.
two provide for a comprehensive framework of anti abuse measures aimed at ensuring that taxation will occur where value is created.
these revisions are aimed to ensure the obligation for multinational companies to report key tax information on the amount of revenue on profit before income tax and on income tax paid in each country where they do business.
in several aspects the council went even further than the basic oecd recommendations.
finally transparency and exchange of information have also been considerably improved.
to summarise our achievements in a nutshell let me mention the following the council has completed work on anti tax avoidance directive two as well as on defining criteria to establish a list of non cooperative jurisdictions.
one of its current main tasks is to finalise the process of establishing the eu list of non cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
i thank you very much for your attention.
mr president presidency of the council. as you know the fight against tax evasion fraud and avoidance is a common eu goal that has been constantly highlighted by the european parliament the european council the council and the commission. our presidency has placed this issue amongst our top priorities for the council's agenda.
furthermore the work of the code of conduct group on business taxation is continuing at considerable pace.
they also now allow tax authorities to access the information in relation to money laundering.
we also reached an agreement last month on the directive on double taxation dispute resolution mechanisms which will considerably enhanced tax certainty by making alternative dispute resolution mechanisms binding faster and more efficient.
agreement has also been reached on double taxation dispute resolution mechanisms. all these lost years represent important cornerstones of eu action in the area of fighting tax evasion fraud and avoidance. going into more detail as regards the particular pieces of legislation let me stress that anti tax avoidance directives one and
within just one year the council revised the directive on administrative cooperation twice.
as a result the anti base erosion and profit shifting measures which have also been given an impulse by the g twenty and the oecd are now translated in the eu into a binding instrument.
let me talk about one topic.
this is the opportunity where we do have facts and a lot of evidence the evidence for tax competition.
mr president i mentioned earlier the ongoing efforts in the council on the different files in the area of the fight against tax evasion fraud and avoidance and i can assure you that in the weeks before the end of our presidency we will do our utmost to achieve all the progress possible on these files.
these have unfortunately not led to the opening of prosecution processes.
these three known reports of the financial intelligence unit have leaked to the media but still prosecution processes seem not to be on the way and therefore we call on the police commissioner to immediately open respective prosecution procedures.
there is a financial supervisor and there is something peculiar in malta because the head of the financial supervisor mfsa joseph bannister is at the same time the vice president of malta finance.
we think the supervisor should take action against pilatus bank and next year bt to look at their licenses after the findings in the panama papers as well as in the reports of the fiu.
we have written today to the commission to start investigations regarding treaty violation procedures concerning money laundering legislation and bank licensing practices.
and you can do it you have in your hands to really reveal to the public the truth about all these things and have fair and tough investigations.
as well as with journalists and some government officials.
that a high government official from an eu member state refuses to appear before the parliamentary committee of inquiry to testify. moreover we also find it very worrying that you as prime minister have not suspended both mr schembri and minister mizzi from their government duties until the legal investigation in their cases is completed. the failure to do so prime minister has seriously undermined the credibility of your country and yourself personally at the crucial time when malta holds the presidency of the european union.
it has also sent a bad signal to european public opinion.
many meps in this house are exploiting this debate to push forward their agenda to ban economic competition between countries.
i note that this has been done in this case as well.
in the last fifty years it has generated new opportunities created jobs and offered greater choice at lower prices for consumers.
however it is very important for us to concentrate on the positives that have been achieved so that we can also look to a positive future. i am also disappointed that the commission did not publish the single market integration report as part of the annual growth survey this year.
we should use it more efficiently.
is a priority for us.
the commission should ensure that member states implement the european legislation adopted on the single market in all its dimensions and place stronger emphasis on the implementation of existing single market legislation.
drawing on experience from the previous cycles this year the commission has proposed to shorten and streamline the whole process in order to give member states more time to react and also to focus on key priorities.
equally important is the need to radically improve access to finance especially for small and mediumsized enterprises and to make the legal and administrative environment more friendly for businesses and to deal effectively with excessive indebtedness in the private sector.
we support these priorities but we think that more effort is needed to implement them effectively especially in the area of structural reforms that are necessary for increasing potential growth in europe.
these countryspecific recommendations provide guidance and advice to member states on how to stimulate growth and jobs in conformity with the europe two thousand and twenty strategy while at the same time avoiding excessive imbalances.
i call on this house to support our report.
the european semester introduced in two thousand and eleven within the sixpack is the most important instrument for national policy coordination and surveillance in the eu.
however we also recognise that countries with sufficient fiscal space have the potential to further accelerate domestic investment.
we also share the commission's opinion that the actual implementation of csrs by member states leaves much to be desired.
this year priorities focus on the most important growth drivers and include investment for growth and jobs growth friendly fiscal consolidation structural reforms in the labour product and services markets and active employment policies.
two thousand and fourteen thus the potential positive impact of coordination is seriously diminished.
we have realised that more coordination of national economic policies is needed within the eu in order to prevent imbalances ensure convergence and exploit potential synergies.
we share the commission's view that continued fiscal consolidation is needed in member states with unsustainable debt levels and that strict compliance with eu fiscal rules under the reformed stability and growth pact is absolutely crucial for sustainable recovery.
other rules such as those for the banking union necessary though they are have also introduced down the line new costs and delays in the circulation and mobilisation of funds.
despite the quantitative easing programme run by the european central bank its president mario draghi stated again that he is prepared to do anything to keep the system on track.
true deficits have been curtailed in a majority of member states and arguably national debt levels are going down but would that not have happened anyway given normal economic and financial pressures?
firstly we share your view that many member states in particular in the euro area are faced with interdependent macroeconomic challenges.
specifically more attention will be given to employment and social performance in the macro economic imbalances procedure.
our objective here is to strengthen and support national processes and the role of social partners not to hamper them. national traditions are very different.
the capacity to compete and to adjust is essential for economies to deal with shocks and structural changes and to prosper within a monetary union.
finally the commission considers effective democratic legitimacy and accountability to be an indispensable element of the process to complete
report. we expect the european parliament to take part in shaping the debates to define the economic and social priorities of
we are therefore proposing that national competitiveness boards be set up in all euro area member states. they would be independent bodies that provide expertise on competitiveness performance and reforms.
the commission has also decided to set up an advisory european fiscal board. this board will provide advice on the implementation of fiscal rules taking into account both national and euro area developments.
we will launch new efforts to promote greater use of benchmarking and cross examination across policy or thematic areas.