Prime Minister Robert Abela has tabled a motion in Parliament proposing that the posts of Standards for Public Life Commissioner and the Ombudsman to be filled by a former Chief Justice and a retired Judge respectively.

In a statement on Friday, the Office of the Prime Minister said that Abela tabled the two motions in Parliament to nominate former Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi and retired Judge Joseph Zammit McKeon to the posts of Standards Commissioner and Ombudsman respectively.

Abela said that he believes that the two former judiciary members “have the necessary qualifications, experience, integrity, and ability in order to serve in these two roles.”

His office notes that this was “confirmed by the Opposition leader himself who not only initially agreed with the nominations as they are being presented in these motions, but again indicated that he is ready to accept that a former Chief Justice can serve in a constitutional role.”

The motions will both require cross-party support in the form of a two-thirds majority in order to be successful.

Azzopardi was appointed as a Judge in 2003 by then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami, and was appointed as Chief Justice in 2018 by then Prime Minister Joseph Muscat – a post he held until his retirement in 2020. 

He once contested a general election as a Labour Party but is considered as an uncontroversial character and as being well-respected in legal and political circles.

Zammit McKeon meanwhile was appointed as a Judge in 2009 and in 2018 became President of the Civil Court.  He retired from the bench in March 2021.

The Nationalist Party has said that it is in favour of Zammit McKeon’s appointment, but had yet to pronounce itself on Azzopardi’s appointment.

In a statement later on Friday, the party said that the Prime Minister’s motion confirmed “his arrogance” and how he was trying to “steamroll over everyone.”

“The Prime Minister has been making it difficult for there to be discussions about important posts such as the Ombudsman and the Commission for Standards in Public Life for months,” the party said.

This is resulting in cases before the Standards Commissioner ending up not being investigated or having no decision taken on them.  The PN said that its parliamentary group had expressed its disappointment that the Prime Minister had not been available to reach an agreement so that the Standards Commissioner can be appointed by Parliament.

“The Opposition’s position has been clear from the very beginning.  The PN declared its agreement with the appointment of the Ombudsman, but not with the nomination of the Standards for Public Life Commissioner,” the party said.

The PN said that one can see that this is the case because it was the Opposition which had asked for Zammit McKeon to be appointed as Ombudsman, while it also appealed for discussions for an agreement on the Standards Commissioner to continue.

The Labour Party in response retorted by saying that once again the PN had not given a valid reason as to why it was against the nomination of the former Chief Justice as Standards Commissioner, saying that the Opposition Leader had already accepted the nomination beforehand.

 

“This is truly the arrogance of those from the Opposition who want to dictate everything themselves,” the PL said.

The position of Ombudsman has been up for renewal since 2021 after Anthony Mifsud’s five-year term expired.  He stayed on in the post, maintaining it until a replacement would be found but recently warned that the office was suffering from a lack of long-term planning and motivation because his replacement was yet to be selected.

George Hyzler meanwhile departed from the post of Standards Commissioner at the end of last summer in order to take up a posting at the European Court of Auditors.