Tag: Parliament

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis defended the judiciary against a charge, made in a damning Council of Europe report, that they were insensitive to domestic violence, thus contributing to a low conviction rate in such cases.

Opposition MP Beppe Fenech Adami called on the authorities to carry out an exercise to identify the accident hotspots responsible for many of Malta’s traffic fatalities, insisting that the present average of a death on Maltese roads every three weeks needed to be brought down.

Minister for Finance Edward Scicluna will be resigning from his position, and stepping down from Parliament, in order to become Governor of the Central Bank of Malta.

Energy Minister Michael Farrugia held back from defending the controversial decision to exempt the ElectroGas consortium from paying €40 million in excise taxes, as well as the decision to defer the payment of a €18 million penalty for late delivery for 18 years.

A proposed law seeking to provide a legal basis for the appointment of persons of trust has been met with scepticism by Opposition MPs, who argue that the suggested provisions provided grounds for abuse.

Health Minister Chris Fearne cited apparently stable numbers of new Covid-19 cases as evidence that the situation in Malta was under control.

The ftira and Maltese village feasts have been included in the list of intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, National Heritage Minister José Herrera said.

Speaker Anġlu Farrugia emphasised that MPs are obliged to declare their spouses’ assets along with their own and that this requirement had not been changed over the years.

Prime Minister Robert Abela fell short of doing so, but on behalf of his parliamentary group, government whip Glenn Bedingfield congratulated Nationalist Party MEP Roberta Metsola for her appointment as the Vice-President of the European Parliament on Monday.

Nationalist Party MP David Thake suggested that local councils could be given the right to veto certain development projects within their borders, as well as to prevent the demolition of historic structures.