That one fly in the presidential ointment

Malta’s fledgling EU presidency certainly has a lot to offer, particularly in terms of placing Malta more squarely on the European map than it has ever been before.

Not only will the country be in a position to push through its agenda and its declared priorities for the presidency, but it will also garner Malta a good deal of publicity and with it good chance to considerably raise its profile.

This week’s visit by the whole of the European Commission will be one such case in point. There is, however, a fly in the ointment and we are not speaking about the inclement weather forecast to continue through the next week.

That fly in the ointment is the continual presence of the one serving EU minister that has been implicated in the Panama Papers. On Wednesday Dr Mizzi will no doubt be there centre stage along with the rest of the Cabinet, but he will also take pride of place as Malta’s minister within the Office of the Prime Minister.

When that happens, there will certainly be some eyebrows and questions raised as to how a person who has been implicated in one of the biggest international scandals of the last year will be there rubbing shoulders with the European Union’s top powerbrokers, movers and shakers.

Of course it will all be smiles and pleasantries but behind that façade there are some real problems lingering. The hangover from the Panama Papers that the government is presumably suffering from has undoubtedly provided its fair share of headaches, and there are certainly more headaches in store.

Now according to information reaching this newspaper, and as reported in today’s issue, an elixir for that headache will be the publication of the long-awaited audit into the minister’s financial affairs and his escapades into Panama and New Zealand. That publication is due to coincide with the visit of the committee established by the European Parliament to look into the Panama Papers. That committee is clearly intent on questioning Dr Mizzi and, if Dr Mizzi’s comments on the prospect of that happening are anything to go by, he is most reluctant to do so.

It is evident that a refusal to answer to the EP committee could have serious impacts on Malta’s EU Presidency as the EU Parliament might see that as Malta snubbing it, thus meaning they might stonewall other initiatives coming from Malta during its Presidency. The committee is due in Malta next month and such a move could very well leave a considerable dent in Malta’s credibility as a serious nation.

Malta is certainly in the EP’s crosshairs. And while the government may believe it has managed to avoid the true brunt of the Panama Papers scandal by burying its head in the sand as far as its Maltese opposition and population is concerned, such ploys will serve it no good whatsoever when it comes time to answer to the European Parliament.

Perhaps the ploy here is to publish the audit by the still unknown firm during the EP committee’s visit, or perhaps in the lead-up to that visit, so as to avoid the committee’s scrutiny. Once the audit is published the government or Dr Mizzi could very well turn around and hold up the audit as a waiver.

Will the audit be used as an excuse to avoid their questions? Only time will tell the answer to that.

This newspaper had recently asked Dr Mizzi whether he would make himself available to the EP Panama Papers committee if summoned. His reply, inexplicable at the time, was that: “If I receive such a request and justification, I will reply accordingly.”

Now in the context of the information that the audit will be published to coincide with the committee’s visit, that answer takes on a new meaning in that the government’s plan all along may very well have been to carefully time the release of the audit. Perhaps that audit, supposedly 11 months in the making, has been ready for some time now. Should that turn out to be the case, it would be a national insult.

The people of this country have been waiting an awfully long time for that audit and to think that the government has been sitting on it only to release it at the most opportune time would be, after all that has come to pass in the meantime, downright despicable. It would also show an utter contempt for the Maltese public at large.

Such contempt, however, is something that we have become accustomed to of late. Giving the government the benefit of the doubt, we sincerely hope that this is not the case but at this stage and after all the ploys the government has resorted to when it comes to its avoidance of the reality of the Panama Papers’ revelations, we would not be at all surprised.