Former Prime Minister Alfred Sant accused the European Parliament of giving in to the facile stigmatisation of countries like Malta, making his last intervention before Parliament’s recess. The Maltese MEP explained why he had abstained on the final vote on the text of the resolution ‘Negotiations with Council and Commission on European Parliament's right of inquiry’ during the last session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg before its recess leading to the European elections next May.

The Maltese MEP said the European Parliament has recently been making increasing use of its investigative rights with special and inquiry committees following major scandals. The TAXE committee, established after LuxLeaks, or the EMIS committee focusing on emission measurements in the automotive sector, showed the Parliament's ability to contribute significantly to the European public debate.

Exercises have been carried to understand how and why such maladministration and breaches of EU law have been happening and subsequent policy options to tackle them have been proposed. The first TAXE Committee set out ideas for transparent taxation across the EU and called for a legislative proposal on country-by-country reporting of companies' profits, tax and subsidies, about which the Commission announced its plans a few months later.

“One would have expected this Parliament, especially with regard to the recent TAXE 3 committee, to deploy the best available methodologies and proceedings in its evaluation of taxation policies and financial services. Rather, it has given in to facile stigmatization of certain countries, notably my country Malta, business sectors and professions.”

The former Prime Minister said the limits of the European Parliament’s investigative rights were quickly reached as soon as tax populism and generalized statements replaced objective proceedings. Unfortunately this deeply questions the credibility and effectiveness of the Parliament's right of inquiry.