Sources in Brussels yesterday rubbished a claim made yesterday by Alfred Sant that he had blocked a proposal to discuss the “unfounded” Egrant allegations against the Prime Minister and his wife at the European Parliament just two weeks before the 2017 general elections in Malta.

The former Prime Minister and current MEP seeking re-election yesterday issued a statement saying, “Much of my political work in Malta and at the European Parliament was meant to provide services underground. This was deliberate. With regards to Malta and the Labour Party, my best input occurred two years ago when Egrant allegations were prevalent during Malta’s election campaign and the Egrant issue was very much alive and hot.

“Moves were made to put Egrant on the agenda of the European Parliament on the eve of the general elections in Malta, Sant claimed. “This could have badly affected Labour’s political campaign.

“I took certain initiatives to ensure that discussion of the issue in Plenary would be postponed till after the general elections.  And that is what actually happened.”

But European Parliament sources speaking with this newspaper yesterday poured cold water on the claim, saying there had indeed been the possibility of a rule of law in Malta debate ahead of the election, which had not been had until after the election. But, they stress, the Egrant issue was never even under consideration as far as that debate was concerned: “There was so much evidence in crystal-clear clear black and white, in the forms of Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit reports and Panama Papers evidence, that is would have been risky to a fault to have widened that to include the Egrant issue, the evidence of which was not as iron clad.”