A Brussels-based online newspaper has dubbed former EU Commissioner John Dalli as "Malta's Mr Teflon," citing the controversies that have surrounded him throughout his political career.

Teflon is a compound often used in non-stick cookware, and consequently it is used as a nickname for people - particularly politicians - to whom criticism or allegations do not appear to stick.

Frequently, the nickname comes from detractors, including critics who had called former US President Ronald Reagan the "Teflon president" after multiple scandals involving many of his administration's officials failed to dent his own popularity.

According to EU Observer, the Maltese equivalent would be Mr Dalli himself, in spite of the former minister being forced to resign amid allegations that an associate of his - Silvio Zammit - asked for a €60 million bribe to change an EU directive on tobacco. Mr Zammit is facing criminal proceedings, but Mr Dalli has been spared the indignity. The police had planned to arraign him, only for newly-appointed commissioner Peter-Paul Zammit to declare that there was no case against Mr Dalli, leaving him free to become a personal consultant to Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

The EU Observer is presently publishing an 8-part investigative report - under the title "EU smoke and mirrors" - concerning the scandal which led to Mr Dalli's resignation, and so far, it has published profiles of both Mr Zammit and Mr Dalli, the former based, in part, on an interview.

In its portrayal of Mr Zammit, the EU Observer notes that in spite of his failure to complete secondary school education and his trouble forming complex sentences in written or spoken English, he has been active in local politics since the age of 13.

It recounts how, among other things, a teenaged Mr Zammit used to spray paint slogans in support of the Nationalist Party on the walls supporting Tower Road in his native Sliema, where he still operates his kiosk/restaurant Peppi's.

But while Mr Zammit describes Mr Dalli as a friend who shares his political views and ideology, he does not comment on the case since it is still ongoing.

Dalli's legacy: financial services and endless controversy

The EU Observer does not appear to have spoken to Mr Dalli: at least, there is no indication of this in its profile of the former EU commissioner.

The online newspaper actually credits him with a significant legacy, asserting that Malta's success in financial services is "the Malta that Dalli made."

At the same time, however, it notes how his career was turbulent long before he set foot in Brussels, starting with a VAT system which appeared to have cost the PN the 1996 general election.

After the PN returned to power two years later, the EU Observer maintained, Mr Dalli reformed the "VAT mess" and things settled down "until his ambitions grew bigger in 2004, the year Malta joined the EU," when he sought to succeed Eddie Fenech Adami as PN leader and prime minister.

It notes that insiders gave him little chances of winning, noting how some still held grudges over the VAT debacle, but others pointing out that he had "grown irascible and suspicious that people inside his own party were out to get him."

While Mr Dalli was made Foreign Minister after losing out to Lawrence Gonzi, things began to unravel soon after that: he resigned three months later after allegations of corruption involving a Mater Dei Hospital tender.

The allegations were eventually deemed to be false - the private investigator behind them was even jailed for fabricating a report - but as EU Observer points out, Mr Dalli has faced other allegations throughout his career.

"His enemies have tried to link him to shady goings-on in a 1990s bank privatisation, in the sale of Malta's airport in 2002, in a contract with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line in 2004, and in the collapse of a ponzi scheme in 2007," the online newspaper maintains.

But none of the allegations stuck, earning him the Teflon moniker.

In spite of all this, EU Observer reports, Maltese sources close to Mr Dalli claimed that the non-stop corruption allegations and the intrigues inside the PN slowly fed "a sense of insecurity."

"The past intrigues give an insight into the psychology of a man, who, in the 2012 EU tobacco case, claimed he was the victim of yet another plot," it concludes.