PN MEP Roberta Metsola Tedesco Triccas, who initially raised the issue related to former MCA chairman Antonio Ghio’s resignation in a written question to the European Commission, reacted to Dr Cardona’s comments, claiming Dr Ghio's forced resignation is in breach of the EU Telecoms Framework Directive 2002/21/EC.

Dr Cardona said that Dr Ghio’s resignation was not in breach of the EU’s directive.

Speaking to this portal, she said “it is clear to me that Antonio Ghio was forced out as Chairman on the basis that his forced resignation is a direct consequence of the peremptory instruction given by the government and is therefore tantamount to removal from office and is in breach of this EU Directive,” she said.

“The reason why I asked the European Commission to clarify how far the removal of the former MCA Chairman breached EU law, is because  Malta’s national regulator for the communications sector falls under the remit of the EU Telecoms Framework Directive 2002/21/EC as amended by Directive 2009/140/EC,  which stipulates that its independence is guaranteed.

“Board members and chairpersons can only be removed for very limited legally justified reasons,” she said.

The MCA Act states in Article 3 that “Member States shall ensure that the head of a national regulatory authority  may be dismissed only if they no longer fulfill the conditions required for the performance of their duties which are laid down in advance in national law”;

“Article 3 of the EU Telecoms Framework Directive was transposed in Maltese law by means of Article 3 of the Malta Communications Authority Act (CAP 418), which states that “a member of the Authority may be removed from office by the minister if, in the opinion of the minister, such member is unfit to continue in office or has become incapable of properly performing his duties as a member.”