[WATCH] PANA committee grills Finance Minister on Malta’s taxation system

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna was the first to appear before a committee from the European Parliament, currently in Malta to investigate the Panama Papers revelations.

In comments to the press after his meeting with the EP delegation, Scicluna said that most of the questions focused on Malta’s taxation system.

“Only [PN MEP] David Casa asked about Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri,” the finance minister said.

Mizzi will be appearing before the committee later on this afternoon. Schembri’s intentions remain unknown and questions sent to the Prime Minister's chief of staff remain unanswered.

Scicluna argued that the PANA committee had “misconceptions” over Malta’s taxation system, and took the opportunity to explain how it works and to defend it.

“They base themselves on newspaper articles that call Malta a tax haven,” the minister said.

The committee also spoke to Malta Financial Services Authority chairman Joe Bannister, as well as the MFSA's director general Marianne Scicluna and its enforcement director Anton Bartolo. Bannister refused to tell MaltaToday what the MEPs asked him about, simply saying that "everything's good", and also said he didn't know how many of them consider Malta to be a tax haven. 

Police commissioner Laurence Cutajar also refused to comment, arguing that what he said should remain between him and the PANA committee. 

Police Commissioner Laurence Cutajar

"We are not in a position to give comments to the press. We gave all the comments we had to give to the investigative committee."