On Wednesday 14 June, the Greens/EFA group of the European Parliament wrote to the European Commission to ask it to look into suspicions of money laundering by politically exposed persons detected by the Maltese information intelligence cell, and on which no action appears to have been taken.
According to the Greens/EFA, a report by the cell in question concerns Keith Schembri (cited in Panama Papers), the head of cabinet of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, and expresses concern at several transactions for a total of €100,000 in favour of Schembri from a company located in the British Virgin Islands. Another report by the cell alleges that the bank Pilatus has violated Maltese anti-money laundering legislation by not denouncing this suspicious transaction to the authorities. The Greens/EFA are therefore calling for the Commission to assess the implementation of the anti-money laundering directive in Malta.
Invited to appear before the European Parliament on Wednesday, Muscat listed the reforms carried out in Malta on his watch and, having been re-elected in the early elections called in response to these same allegations, pledged further reforms under his new term in office, such as a code of conduct for persons working in public office.
The MEPs did not go easy on the Maltese Prime Minister. The Czech MEP Petr Jezek (ALDE) said that in Brussels, Malta fought European efforts towards greater transparency, particularly in the framework of country-by-country tax reporting, the anti-money laundering directive and relaunching the common consolidated corporate tax base dossier. His German ally, Michael Theurer, asked the Prime Minister to explain why Malta had refused to join the reinforced cooperation on the European public prosecutor. The leader of the EPP group, Germany’s Manfred Weber, for his part, asked him why he was keeping a person cited in Panama Papers on his team.
The MEPs of the S&D group (allies of the Maltese head of government) were more measured. Paul Tang of the Netherlands said that there was a lack of facts and that the allegations surrounding the Maltese Prime Minister’s inner circle were just that - allegations. His Danish colleague, Jeppe Kofod, spoke along the same lines and said that the EU itself might not be capable of responding to the Panama Papers scandal.
Muscat was virulent in his own defence, ironically telling Weber that an EPP European Commissioner had also been implicated in Panama Papers and “no one is saying anything about that”.
He reiterated that Maltese standards had been evaluated by the EU when Malta joined the Union and that they also corresponded to OECD standards. He refuted the common misconception that the island’s economy is hugely dependent on financial services, stating that electronic chips are the principal product exported by Malta. “We are not a mailbox economy”, he stressed. As for the allegations surrounding his wife and her alleged links to a company cited in the Panama Papers, he dismissed them as 'fake news'. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)