Malta’s ‘Panama politicians’ are in the Brussels news this morning
I have been receiving a flood of links to this piece since 7.30am, which means it is doing the rounds pretty fast already. Politico’s story was triggered by Manfred Galdes’s resignation as chief of the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, a story I broke on this website some days ago, prompting government communications boss Kurt Farrugia to email Politico, which linked to my story, and suggest that it “ignores” me.
Instead, Politico did the proper thing and followed it up.
The Brussels-based news portal’s report says:
A money-laundering scandal that reached the highest levels of government in the EU’s smallest country has attracted the attention of Brussels.
When a Maltese cabinet minister and the prime minister’s chief of staff were mentioned in the Panama Papers leaks, it looked like a messy domestic affair.
No longer. The alleged burying of a report into the saga has set alarm bells ringing among EU lawmakers worried about Malta’s ability to steer through new EU anti-money laundering legislation when it holds the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers in the first half of next year.
Read the full story in Politico here.
