SHOULD FATF NOW CONSIDER MALTA A FAILED STATE AND BLACKLIST IT ?

Joseph Drowning in his Foul Legacy by COSIMO

Time has passed since the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Greylisted the Republic of Malta, but the needed reforms, which include the filing of money laundering and corruption charges against most of the present government's leadership, have not occurred. What is happening is a series of actions solely designed to keep the ruling Labour Party in power at the next election. We are not surprised, for meaningful reform would place at least a dozen PL leaders in prison for many years, seize their assets, which are mainly the proceeds of crime, and clean up Europe's most corrupt government.

Many expats have given up/ ""I'm not sure if there is a cure for Malta's incestuous cancer.The rot is too deep. I wish I could be more positive about the situation there, but I cannot see any light at the end of this sad island yet."  Most doubt that Malta will ever clean itself up.

It appears that only Tough Love will be effective; inasmuch as Malta imports most of what it consumes, if compliance officers at Europe's banks were faced with a Malta treated by the FATF in the same way as they must consider North Korea and Iran, international trade in consumer and manufactured goods to the country would soon slam to a halt. Since trading with the Middle East would be cost prohibitive, for the most part, a serious situation would result.

Malta would not last very long as the functional equivalent of North Korea, totally isolated; regime change would quickly ensue. Is such a radical idea now necessary ?