Casa ‘can consider’ supporting Helena Dalli’s bid for European Commission, Metsola more hesitant

Nationalist Party MEP David Casa, who had come out hard against the prospect of Finance Minister Edward Scicluna vying for a post on the European Commission, has said that he “can consider” supporting Helena Dalli for the spot on the EU’s executive arm.

The PN’s Head of Delegation to the European Parliament Roberta Metsola was, however, more hesitant about the upcoming grilling by the European Parliament and whether she would support the government’s nominee.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this announced, after much speculation between the two candidates and after gender-balancing talks with after European Commission President-designate Ursula von der Leyen, that Minister Helena Dalli will be Malta’s nomination for the next European Commission.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, Metsola said she expects the PN Delegation to meet with Dalli shortly but said she “would not like to comment too much before that meeting takes place.

“Every prospective Commissioner has to undergo a European Parliament grilling that will take place after summer. Her profile on equality and anti-discrimination is well known among MEPs, and will certainly help.

“That said, I expect that apart from her experience and technical questions relating to her assigned portfolio, she will also be asked about Konrad Mizzi’s actions and why responsibility has not been shouldered.

“I suspect that MEPs will also ask her to address why the Government has not yet called for a public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia - as MEPs from across the political spectrum have asked for on different occasions.

“I think for many MEPs her answers on these issues will be as important as her track-record and her technical grasp of the subjects.

“I look forward to meeting with her soon.”

Casa was of a similar mindset, observing how Dalli “will inevitably be asked some difficult questions concerning her role in a Cabinet that protected those exposed by the Panama Papers.

“A great deal will depend on how she responds to these questions.

“However her track record when it comes to civil liberties will be an asset. On balance, she is the only choice that Muscat could make from his own cabinet and I believe that I can consider supporting her.”

Casa’s tone is a departure from his last Sunday with respect to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna’s plausibility for the past, having urged him to not even consider it as it would “not end well”.

On the prospect of Scicluna being nominated, and with nominations needing to be confirmed by the European Parliament, Casa had said: “Scicluna should spare Malta the embarrassment of an EP hearing.

“Not only has a court declared an investigation should be launched over Scicluna’s role in the Vitals Global Healthcare [state hospitals] deal, but he was also responsible for the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit and the Malta Financial Services Authority while a bank that appears to have been set up to facilitate international corruption and money laundering was licensed in Malta to the detriment of our financial sector.”

It was under Scicluna’s watch, Casa pointed out, “that our supervisory authorities were politically captured so as to ensure impunity for his cabinet colleagues.”

The Opposition’s spokesperson for finance Mario de Marco had also blasted the suggestion, saying Scicluna had “time and time again failed to ensure that the authorities under his political authority function independently and in the national interest.

“As evidenced by a series of reports by the auditor general, his inaction has also cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of euros with public contracts such as the one signed with Electrogas,” de Marco said. “He turned a blind eye as direct orders became the rule rather than the exception and did nothing to stop the reckless increase in public expenditure. His role in the scandalous contract awarded to Vitals has made him, together with two other government ministries, the subject of a magisterial inquiry. In any other democracy, such a development would have resulted in a resignation.”