MILAN — The Mediterranean island nation of Malta needs better checks and balances to address the way the prime minister’s powers currently eclipse other institutions, experts from Europe’s top human rights body said on Friday. A health minister in Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s Labour government lost his post in 2016 due to revelations that he opened a company in Panama, but there has been no police investigation despite public pressure and he retained the title of minister. Calls for the police commissioner’s resignation following the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in October 2017 have also gone unanswered. The imbalance in Malta’s institutions has been a topic at the European Parliament. Malta’s government declined to comment, pending the filing of the full text of the assessment expected next week.

Source: Washington Post December 14, 2018 13:13 UTC