The Council of the European Union has told Malta it must ensure police whistleblowers are afforded full legal protection.

The lack of such protection within the force was one of the main deficiencies Malta has been called upon to address as part of a Council implementing decision on Malta’s application of the Schengen acquis in the field of police cooperation.

The recommendations have been sent to the European Parliament and the national Parliament for follow-up action.

In addition to ensuring legal protection for whistleblowers from within the force, the European Council also called on Malta to “raise awareness among police officers on the reporting methods of unethical behaviour, for instance via the available online platform”.

A report published last November by Whistleblowing International Network and Maltese NGO called for “equal protection of soldiers, police officers, and other members of disciplinary forces on the same terms as any other civil servant”.

The issue of whistleblowing within the force does not come to the fore often, perhaps for good reason.

In February 2020, dozens of police Traffic Branch officers were arrested in an overtime abuse scandal, which led to a “witch hunt” within the force to find the whistleblower.

According to reports at the time, senior officers were instructed from “up top” for several weeks to “sit on the file” an officer blew the whistle on the fraud.

An investigation was only launched after the police whistleblower emailed...

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