Former Prime Minister and Maltese MEP Alfred Sant said that the European Parliament  cannot allow procedures by which allegations of breaches in fundamental values in EU member states are investigated to be politicised and made suspect.

He was intervening during the debate on the  "Need for a comprehensive Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights mechanism." Sant insisted on the urgency  "to construct a mechanism that can be accepted by all as objective, fair, transparent and deliberate in correcting any such breaches."

"The risk that allegations of breaches of our fundamental values get instrumentalised from within polities for partisan reasons has increased. They are then promoted at European levels to foment criticism directed at the government of the day. I have seen this happening for my country Malta. And in this House. I cannot rule out that it might be happening for other Member States."

The Maltese MEP said that assessing whether democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights are being breached systemically depends on analysis of the available facts, duly proven. It also frequently depends on subjective points of views adopted for political and other reasons that filter into the assessments being made, he said. "Unless this is recognized, there can be no worthwhile approach to spotlighting and correcting breaches. Mutual trust among member states and their legal systems underpin what the EU stands for. Yet the ideological consensus that used to prevail among Member States seems to be breaking down."