PM to appear before PANA committee but only after Egrant inquiry concludes

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has been summoned by the PANA committee and Greens Party for questioning in Brussels on the 18 May, AD chairman Arnold Cassola has said.

But the Prime Minister, while accepting, said he would only testify before the committee after the magisterial inquiry report is published. Muscat ordered a magisterial inquiry into claims that his wife if the owner of a company in Panama, an allegation the Muscat couple refuse.

“The Prime Minister will be able to show beyond any doubt how the Opposition leader lied against him personally and his family,” a DOI statement read.

“The fingerprints of the Nationalist Party’s intervention are everywhere because the Pana Committee could have summoned the Prime Minister when it was on a fact-finding mission in Malta last February.”

The news that the PANA committee had summoned Dr Muscat was broken by AD chairman Arnold Cassola, who said the party “fully endorses the Greens and PANA committee request to Prime Minister Muscat to go to Brussels on 18 May.”

Last month, Werner Langer, President of the European Parliament PANA investigating committee, had written to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat urging him to use his authority to send Keith Schembri to Strasbourg on 18 May to be asked questions by the PANA Committee.

In the letter, Mr Langer said that the PANA committee visited Malta on 20 February and “had constructive talks with many interlocutors.” OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri had, however, refused to attend a session with the committee. The PANA committee have now also asked Dr Muscat to go before the committee on 18 May.

MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group commented: “Prime Minister Muscat has to explain the latest developments and allegations regarding the offshore company called Egrant. The credibility of the EU is at stake as Malta holds the Presidency of the EU and is currently negotiating on revising the anti-money laundering standards. It is highly unusual to call for elections during a Presidency. This election may not delay the inquiry of the European Parliament.”

“We have already invited the Maltese Presidency twice and they didn’t show up. Similarly, we requested to meet with Mr Schembri, chief of staff of the Prime Minister, and he refused to see us in Malta or to come to Brussels. In addition, the Greens have successfully insisted that Nexia BT will be reinvited to PANA in June. “