Exactly 700 days from the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, European parliamentarians have agreed to re-establish the European Parliament's Rule of Law Monitoring Group, extending its mandate until 2022 and increasing its competence to also look into threats to democracy, rights violations and corruption in Member States.

Member of the European Parliament for Malta and Gozo, Roberta Metsola and Slovak MEP Vladimir Biolcik were selected as the EPP representatives on the Group. MEP Metsola who made the fight against corruption and respect for the rule of law in Member States a cornerstone of her work, underlined her determination to strengthen systems across the Union.

"I was returned as a representative of the people of Malta and Gozo with a stronger mandate to tackle these issues and to stand up for the European values that underpin our Union. The Group will look at every Member State and will seek to push for reforms where these are necessary. I expect the Group will again visit States, hold hearings and make specific recommendations.

We will work on the previous mandate that looked at Malta and Slovakia in particular and assess what progress, if any, has been made since our report. Our interest is not to single out any State in particular - we will look at different systems in different States and make proposals to strengthen them where these are needed," Metsola said.