The information in the Register of Beneficial Owners must remain accessible to journalists and civil societies, said the Nationalist Party on Saturday.

In a statement, the party said that it considered the decision of the Malta Business Registry (MBR) to close access to the information held in the Register of Beneficial Owners as manifestly disproportionate and hasty.

The PN said that it recognizes that the European Court of Justice decided that the information about the effective beneficiaries of the companies should not be accessible to everyone. However, the same court also recognized and emphasized that the information should be accessible to those who have a legitimate interest, including journalists and civil society.

The opposition said that from October 2020 the information about companies that were deleted from the company register was no longer accessible online from the Commercial Registry of Malta under the pretext that it was necessary for the company register to be cleaned of those -defunct companies. active This happened at the expense of the right to information that journalists, civil society and the public in general should enjoy.

“The decision of the Malta Business Registry means that journalists and civil society will be deprived of an essential tool in the search for the truth and the disclosure of abuses with the aim of strengthening democracy and governance good in our country,” reads the statement.

In this regard the Nationalist Party is encouraging the Minister for the Economy Silvio Schembri to give a clear directive to the Commercial Registry of Malta and act as a Government Agency by giving free, full and open access to journalists and to civil society for the information that is kept. in the Register of Effective Beneficiaries.

He is also urging “without delay” the Minister for Justice Jonathan Attard and the Schembri to present a bill in parliament so that Maltese law reflects what was decided by the European Court of Justice.

The statement issued was signed by the PN Spokesman for Justice Karol Aquilina and the PN Spokesman for the Economy Ivan J. Bartolo