Cyrus Engerer, who has been made the Prime Minister’s special envoy to the European Union, has apparently been given security clearance by Malta’s national authorities despite European Council rules that prevent people with criminal records being given access to European Union Classified Information (EUCI).
The European Council decision on 23 September 2013 - which lays down the criteria to be used to determine whether an individual may be authorised to have access to EUCI, and the investigative and administrative procedures to be followed to that effect - clearly rules out anyone with a criminal record.
The European Council, however, places the responsibility of determining security clearance on, “the competent national authority”.
Malta’s competent national authorities, however, appear to have turned a blind eye to Mr Engerer’s past transgressions, which have earned him a criminal record, and the fact that he is still serving a two-year suspended sentence after he was convicted for the dissemination of pornography intended to vilify his former partner.
EU Council regulations on classified information make it quite clear that anyone with a criminal record should not be given the type of security clearance that Mr Engerer has been granted.
According to the 2013 European Council decision, a security investigation needs to be carried out on anyone privy to EU classified information. The decision, however, places the onus of determining that on the competent national authorities, who should, according to the decision, “make an overall assessment based on the findings of such a security investigation”.
Amongst the 11 principal criteria used for that purpose is included an examination of whether the individual, “has been convicted of a criminal offence or offences”.
Mr Engerer’s position as an EU ‘Sherpa’ – European affairs advisors to EU heads of state and government - clearly gives him access to EU classified information. But the positive security assessment by Maltese authorities has paved the way for Mr Engerer to take up the €85,000 a year newly-created post as the Prime Minister’s man in Brussels.
The Prime Minister has said that Mr Engerer’s role is to coordinate with Malta’s Permanent Representative to the EU, Marlene Bonnici, on issues related to European Council meetings.
Mr Engerer, a former Nationalist Sliema local councillor, had famously shifted to the Labour Party and later sought to contest the last MEP election on the Labour ticket.
His electoral aspirations were, however, scuttled after he was found guilty of distributing pornography in a case of revenge porn. The conviction last May led Mr Engerer to retract his candidature for the election being held the same month, after which Prime Minister Joseph Muscat publicly embraced him and described him as a, “soldier of steel”. He was later appointed by the Prime Minister as his adviser on EU affairs.
Last October, he was appointed as the Prime Minister’s special envoy. The Times had revealed that Mr Engerer has a pay packet of €85,000, with a basic salary of €35,000 (linked to the government scale 3 salary – that of an ambassador – and that he is entitled to annual allowances of €50,000.
The newspaper had also questioned Mr Engerer’s security clearance for EU summits and had reported that the Office of the Prime Minister would not say whether Mr Engerer had been given clearance by the security services, necessary for being privy to top tier EU discussions and handling the kind of sensitive EU documents that are treated by EU summits.
Mr Engerer had insisted in the wake of the story, that he is fully accredited and has full security clearance. He had stated on his Facebook account on the day of the story that, “I’m accredited to the Council of the European Union and every necessary screening for accreditation has been made. Many permanent representations have the role of the Sherpa, who is the personal representative of the Prime Minister to the European institutions.”
As such, it appears that he has been given security clearance by the Maltese authorities despite the EU Council’s stipulation that such clearance should not be given to people with criminal records.