The European Parliament’s Panama Papers inquiry began this morning with the committee conducting its first official meeting.

During the meeting, the newly set-up inquiry committee elected its chairman, the European People’s Party Group’s Werner Langen (below).

The committee is made up of 65 members, inclusive of PN/EPP MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa. Former Polish Foreign Minister and Professor of Economics Dariusz Rosati was elected to be the EPP group’s spokesman in the committee. According to the European Parliament’s website, the committee as a whole may elect up to 4 vice-chairs.

The 65 member committee is made up of various European Parliamentary groups, the bulk being made up by the EPP and the Socialist & Democrats.

The Committee of Inquiry will investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion was set up as a direct result of the Panama Papers scandal.

This refers to the leaking of millions of documents to the International Consortium of International Journalists who exposed how the world’s elite: politicians, businessmen and celebrities buy secrecy as a commodity in order to conceal their wealth. While holding offshore holdings in a financially secretive jurisdiction such as Panama does not immediately imply wrongdoing, the effort to set up such financial structures leads to the possibility of money laundering, tax avoidance and evasion. Mossack Fonseca, a Panama based law firm, was at the centre of the controversy as the leak showed correspondence between the law firm and its clients.

Jurisdictions such as Panama, the British Virgin Isles and the Seychelles have been criticised heavily by international organisations and governments in the past for selling secrecy as a commodity, thus allowing for the financing of terrorism, drug smuggling and weapons dealing.

No-Portfolio Minister Konrad Mizzi and the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Keith Schembri were heavily implicated in the scandal as it was found that they each hold a company in Panama sheltered by a trust in New Zealand.

"We want to know who owns letter box companies", said Burkhard Balz, the EPP Group MEP who led the negotiations on the mandate for the Panama Papers Inquiry Committee which will formally start its work on Tuesday. The EPP Group in the European Parliament has called for registers of company owners. “

The next committee meeting is set to take place in September.